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December 22nd, 2005
"San Diego Man Awarded $12.7M in Falling Sign Lawsuit"
Daniel Doll, a San Diego area man who was paralyzed over two years ago by a falling movie theater sign settled his injury lawsuit for $12.7 million recently. The man had jumped on top of a 4-year-old girl he was babysitting in order to protect her from the falling sign. The girl had some fractures but has since made a full recovery.
The incident occurred the night of February 22, 2003 just outside the San Diego Sports Arena, now called the ipayOne Center. Daniel Doll, of El Cajon, a small city within San Diego County, has been paralyzed from the chest down because of the incident.
Doll settled his suit against the company, Arena Group 2000, the maker of the sign that fell on them. Image National Inc. and Mann Theatres, two other companies involved in the suit also agreed to the settlement amount and the three companies will share in paying the award.
The city of San Diego was not responsible, even though they are the owners of the area where the accident occurred. San Diego had a clause as part of their ownership that exempts them from responsibility for any accidents occurring on the stadium property.
Doll is a 32-year-old mechanical engineer who has been praised by many in the San Diego community for what many see as his heroic act. Doll, however, has said that he hopes that anyone would have reacted in the same manner as he did, regardless of who they were.
Doll doesn''t remember much from that night, only that him and the girl and another friend had just eaten at a nearby restaurant and were on their way to the sports arena when the sign made a loud noise. Doll jumped over toward the girl just as the sign fell on her, saving the girl from a potentially fatal accident.
During the trial, documents emerged that proved that many officials already were aware of the sign''s state of disrepair, perhaps as early as 1996. Even after several warnings and code violations, however, the sign remained as it was.
