Dabreau v. Columbian Club of Freehold: A woman who allegedly suffered broken bones and a back injury in a fall agreed to a $405,000 settlement of her Monmouth County suit on Dec. 31.
Christine Dabreau, now 22, of Farmingdale was attending a party at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Freehold on July 31, 2009. She leaned against a railing on an elevated landing at the rear of building and it gave way, causing her to fall five feet onto concrete below, according to her lawyer, Craig Laughlin of Gale & Laughlin in Hazlet.
Dabreau broke her left arm, requiring open reduction and internal fixation, and sustained a lumbar disc herniation, nasal bone fractures and facial lacerations that left permanent scars, he says.
The plaintiff’s engineering expert opined that the railing collapsed without warning and was a hazardous condition. A defense expert countered that the railing, which was removable, did not break but had been loosened or altered by Dabreau or others attending the event.
The parties agreed to the settlement after mediation with former Superior Court Judge Thomas O’Brien, of Bathgate, Wegener & Wolf in Lakewood. The lawyer for the Knights of Columbus, Terrence Bolan of Bolan Jahnsen Dacey in Shrewsbury, confirms the settlement.
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