By Tom Tracy
Jerked around A woman from Trinidad visiting East Flatbush is suing the city after she claims she was thrown about a northbound Q train. In a lawsuit filed with the Kings County Clerk’s office last week, Beulah Tow-Yein Ramdin alleges that she was on the train as it was entering the Newkirk Avenue station on May 6, 2005 when the “train jerked violently.” Attorneys for Ramdin claimed that the straphanger apparently couldn’t hang onto anything in time and was thrown to the floor, where she fractured her arm in two places. Her injury, attorneys allege, “was caused solely and wholly by reason of the negligence, recklessness and carelessness” on behalf of the New York City Transit Authority, which she is suing for $1 million. The city does not comment on pending litigation. Stuffing your mattress A Brooklyn woman is suing the manufacturer of a mattress she bought, claiming that it was stuffed with bedbugs. Attorneys for Cherisse Lyles allege that she bought the Emerald Queen-size mattress from Yours Furniture on February 4, 2006 and quickly realized that the springs weren’t the only things bouncing around inside it. The lawsuit claims that the mattress was “infected with bugs, causing [Lyles] to sustain injuries.” Dahill Road attorney Abraham Melamed originally sued workers at Yours Furniture as well as Royal Furniture Corp. Attorneys for Royal Furniture, however, proved that mattress sold “was sealed at the manufacturer’s factory site” and delivered to their store “in the same condition: completely sealed.” Last week, Melamed filed his suit against the manufacturer — New Jersey-based Ditex Mattress Corp. In the lawsuit, Royal Furniture is listed as a third-party plaintiff. Attempts to reach Ditex Mattress Corp. were unsuccessful as this paper went to press. School daze This past week, the city’s Department of Education was hit with two separate lawsuits pertaining to children injured at borough schools. One lawsuit was filed by a former student at Wingate High School, 600 Kingston Avenue, who claimed that he was viciously attacked on school grounds by someone who was not enrolled there. The graduate’s attorneys at Eiges and Goldblum, LLP claim that the teen was attending class on December 19, 2005 when “he was caused to sustain injuries as the result of an assault sustaining permanent injuries.” The attack was caused, attorneys claim, because school officials “allowed unauthorized persons into the school and allowing those unauthorized students to attack and cause bodily injury to students.” Wingate was also accused of “failing to adequately train their employees so as to enable them to control students in the school.” In a similar lawsuit filed a day later, parents of a Flatbush child are suing the city and the Department of Education for $3 million for not stopping a snowball fight at Meyer Levin Intermediate School, 5909 Beverley Road, last year. According to the brief filed with the Kings County Clerk’s Office Friday, the child was playing in the schoolyard with some classmates on February 16, 2006 when a student threw what was described as an “ice ball” at him. The iceball hit the child “over the right eye” and “caused serious personal injuries,” attorneys claim. School officials are being sued for allegedly allowing “the students to engage in a dangerous activity.” Officials are also being sued for negligence and lack of supervision. Nearly a year later, the student still experiences “pain and suffering” and “still suffers mental and emotional distress” from the injuries he incurred that day, his attorney G. Wesley Simpson claims. Bite of the Century A woman is suing Century 21 Department Store, 502 86th Street, for $5 million after she was allegedly attacked by another customer’s dog. In his summons dated January 31, attorney Patrick Johnson claims that the customer, Florence Cavaliere, was perusing the clothing racks inside the store on September 7, 2006 when the dog attacked. Although the extent of her injuries was not detailed in the summons, her attorney alleged that Cavaliere “sustained severe injuries to her limbs and body, all of which necessitated hospital, medical care and attention.” The injuries, Johnson continued, “was caused solely and wholly by reason of the carelessness and negligence of the defendants [Century 21] by permitting the customer to enter the store with a dog.” Officials at Century 21 had no comment about the lawsuit.
