School district settles death suit

A lawsuit filed against the Long Beach School District and the city on behalf of a bicyclist who died when a school bus hit him at a city intersection was settled for $610,000 last month.

In July 2009, Attorney Ed Paltzik filed the wrongful-death suit for the family of Joseph Shannon, a 76-year-old Florida man who collided with a school bus driven by Debra Hodge of Oceanside while riding his bike on Monroe Boulevard at East Olive Street on July 28, 2008. Shannon suffered traumatic head injuries and died two days later.

The suit charged the school district with negligence for "failing to properly control, direct, manage and train Hodge," and charged the city with negligence for "no properly installed stop sign, traffic control device or other form of proper warning to bicyclists or pedestrians" at the Monroe-East Olive intersection.

The settlement, in which the school district paid $600,000 and the city $10,000, centered on Shannon's projected longevity. The district's insurance company, NYSAR, initially offered $428,000, estimating that Shannon would have lived until age 82. But Paltzik contended that based on an actuarial table from the Social Security Web site, Shannon could have lived until age 85 or older.

"On top of it, he was in great shape for his age, didn't take a single medication and didn't drink or smoke," Paltzik said. "He was in phenomenal shape, and so we really believed he could have lived until 90. But in the end we compromised and came to what we believe was a fair resolution."

The calculations in the suit included Shannon's lost pension, a portion of his Social Security that his wife, Joan, is entitled to, and about $13,000 annually for lost free cruises that Shannon, an employee with Sagamore Hill National Historic Site in Oyster Bay, received as a guest lecturer with Norwegian Cruise Lines.

James Leyden, the attorney for the school district, did not return a call for comment, and while Long Beach schools Superintendent Dr. Robert Greenberg declined to comment about the settlement, he called the incident a tragedy for everyone involved. "The bus driver feels rotten, and somebody lost his life and the family members lost someone," Greenberg said. "It's a horrible situation."

Paltzik said that the entire settlement went to Joan Shannon even though his daughter, Teresa Eichler, was named in the suit. Shannon declined to comment.

The lawsuit also stated that the City Council was "repeatedly put on notice of the dangerous and defective conditions" at the Monroe-East Olive intersection by residents Richard Boodman, who lives next to the intersection, and Bob Shanley, who wrote letters to the city and addressed the City Council about traffic conditions at the intersection in 2004. Both men argued that there is no consistency in the city's placement of stop signs in the area, which confuses motorists, and that the City Council neglected to address the safety issues.

In order for the city to be held liable for monetary compensation in an accident case, Paltzik explained, the city charter requires that written notice of a dangerous condition, like the lack of a stop sign, be filed with the commssioner of public works 48 hours prior to the accident.

"Unfortunately, there was no written notice given within 48 hours prior to Mr. Shannon's death," Paltzik said. "Not that anyone would have known to do this. Since Long Beach was not on notice in the proscribed manner, that was essentially going to bar recovery from the city."

Corey Klein, the city's corporation counsel, said that the city was required to add $10,000 in "nuance value" money in order to have the suit resolved, and emphasized that the fatal accident was caused exclusively by Hodge. "This tragic case was about a bus driver not seeing a bicyclist, and had nothing to do with stops signs or traffic," Klein said.

According to police, Shannon was riding his bike in the northbound lane of Monroe Boulevard when he was struck by the bus, which was traveling west on East Olive. Shannon was taken to South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside and put on life support, but succumbed to his injuries.

Hodge had three passengers at the time of the accident, police said.

Asked to comment on the settlement, Richard Boodman said, "How many stop signs can you buy for $610,000? And how many lives might have been saved if City Council members ... along with City Manager [Charles] Theofan and acting Police Commissioner Thomas Sofield Sr. had taken the issue of traffic safety seriously when I brought it to their attention in 2004?"

Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.