Tourist Struck By Bus In Queens Hotel's Parking Lot Awarded Almost $1.4 Million

A Queens Supreme Court jury recently awarded almost $1.4 million to a tourist who claimed severe knee injuries stemming from an auto accident at the Maspeth hotel where he was staying.

According to the lawsuit, Ernesto Tiongson was walking in the parking lot of the Comfort Inn at 60-30 Maurice Avenue on July 10, 2008. The St. Louis resident was reportedly struck and knocked to the ground by a shuttle bus that hotel employee Roy Torres was operating in reverse.

Tiongson’s Forest Hills-based trial attorney, Harlan Wittenstein, informed that his client tore the meniscus in each knee, necessitating arthroscopic surgery in September 2008. Tiongson’s physician testified that he will develop arthritis due to the accident, and will eventually have to undergo two knee replacements.

Plaintiff’s counsel also asserted that Tiongson, a doorman in his 60s, could no longer perform the physical aspects of his job or engage in his main form of exercise, jogging a few miles a day.

The defendants, Torres and his employer, KP Hospitality, claimed that Tiongson had already developed degenerative arthritis in his knees before the accident. Their lawyer, Constantine G. Vlavianos from Smith Mazure Director Wilkins Young & Yagerman in Manhattan, also argued that Tiongson had recovered completely and wouldn’t need any accident-related medical care in the future.

After a four-day trial in front of Judge Kevin Kerrigan, the jury deliberated for roughly 3.5 hours before awarding $1,395,000.

Wittenstein opined that jurors believed his arguments because Tiongson and his wife came across as humble people whose lives had been worsened forever by the accident. He also noted that he was involved in the case, but Neil Kalra was the attorney of record.