$250,000 Settlement for Premises Liability / Wrongful Death

John Molinari represented the estate of a 33-year-old man who died as a result of smoke inhalation from a fire in an illegal apartment where he resided in Bayonne, New Jersey. He was single, lived alone and was a self-employed limousine driver at the time of the accident. Difficulties with this claim included an inability to establish that there was conscious pain and suffering, and the autopsy showed that the man was extremely overweight, heavily intoxicated and suffered from heart disease. John asserted that a rescue could have taken place had the firefighters been able to gain entry into the illegal apartment.