Supreme Court Upholds Jury Decision to Reject $30m Cliff Walk Lawsuit

The state Supreme Court on Monday upheld a 2011 Superior Court jury verdict that concluded the state is not responsible for injuries sustained by a New York man in 2000 when he fell from the Newport Cliff Walk and suffered paralyzing injuries.

In a 27-page decision, Justice Gilbert V. Indeglia ruled that Brooklyn resident Simcha Berman, who was on his honeymoon with his now-ex wife when he fell, is not entitled to a new trial and rejected a series of arguments filed in appeal of the 2011 lower court decision.

Berman fell while walking on a beaten path abutting the paved portion of the Cliff Walk on Aug. 17, 2000. The injuries caused a severe spinal injury and rendered him a quadriplegic.

The original lawsuit was filed in 2003 and Berman was seeking upwards of $30 million. Named as defendants in the lawsuit were the Preservation Society of Newport County, the city of Newport, the Cliff Walk Commission and the state of Rhode Island.

Berman’s lawyers argued that the accident was caused by the defendants’ ”negligent failure to properly inspect, maintain and repair the location where [he] fell” and they they know of the dangers and failed to guard or warn against “such defects.”

The defendants sought summary judgement in 2005 on the grounds that they were immunized under the state’s recreational use statute, which frees entities from liability in places where the public is invited with free access.

The city and society were granted summary judgement, leaving the state as the sole defendant, but the city was added back on appeal, which paved the way for the jury trial that ended in 2011 in favor of the defendants.

Berman had settled for $2 million with the city on the first day of the trail -- the maximum payout through the city’s participation through the Rhode Island Interlocal Risk Management Trust, leaving just the state to defend itself against the lawsuit.

During the week-long trial, Berman’s lawyers argued for a new trial, suggesting media attention would prejudice the jury. They also tried -- and failed -- to introduce a letter from 1987 by Sister Lucille McKIllop, the former president of Salve Regina College (now Salve Regina University), describing the death of a Salve student that year, in an effort to demonstrate that state officials knew of the dangers.

Judge Stephen P. Nugent ruled that the letter was addressed to the then-CIty Manager of Newport, not the state, and did not establish evidence that that accident occurred in the same location or circumstances as Berman’s fall.

The jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant on April 13, 2011. Berman’s lawyers appealed, arguing that Nugent shouldn’t have mentioned to the jury that the city had settled in the case or refused to mention that a previous high court ruling that concluded private landowners as well as the Preservation Society of Newport County were not responsible for maintaining the walk or for injuries that occur on it.

In his decision on Monday, Indeglia concluded that Berman’s motion for a new trial was not warranted because there wasn’t enough evidence to support his argument that the jury couldn’t justify its verdict. He also said the state’s role in the Cliff Walk is limited and there is a “dearth of evidence” to show the state was negligent. He also upheld Nugent’s decision to exclude or not exclude specific evidence that Berman argued had tainted the jury against him.

“Taking the evidence in the light most favorable to the state, there were numerous factual
questions upon which reasonable jurors could disagree in determining whether the state breached this assumed duty,” Indeglia wrote. “There was evidence introduced that other individuals may have used the path where Simcha fell without any difficulty, that, in fact, he himself may have even gone down the path once before, and that his accident could have occurred simply because he lost his footing. Additionally, there was evidence from plaintiffs’ own witness that there was no way to ensure complete safety on the Cliff Walk and that any precautionary measures taken required a careful balancing of the potential risks and the public’s right to use and enjoy the Cliff Walk. As such, there was no error in determining that the jury should resolve these factual disputes, and the trial justice properly denied plaintiffs’ motion for judgment as a matter of law.”

Indeglia also wrote that “Specifically, the trial justice noted that, while he was sympathetic to Simcha’s situation, he did not find him to be credible with respect to his testimony regarding the ground crumbling beneath his feet. Additionally, the trial justice found that plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that, if fencing or other suggested precautionary measures had been put in place, such measures would have necessarily prevented this incident.”

In a statement, Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin praised the decision.

“I am very pleased that the Supreme Court affirmed the Superior Court’s judgment that the State of Rhode Island was not negligent in the case of Simcha Berman,” Kilmartin said. “While Mr. Berman’s injuries are extremely unfortunate, as the decision rightly affirmed, those injuries were not the result of negligence on the part of the State. As this long and complex case draws to a close with the denial of motions for a new trial, I commend the thorough and conscientious work of Assistant Attorneys General James Lee and Brenda Baum in successfully defending the State.”

View the full ruling HERE.