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Lawyer Attacked by Spouse Obtains $6 Million Award
New York Law Journal
January 16, 2008
A Manhattan judge has awarded a former law firm associate more than $6 million in damages from the husband who tried to kill her five years ago.
On June 17, 2002, Paul F. Farrey repeatedly stabbed Donna M. Hughes in the right arm and stomach. He then tried to force muscle relaxant pills down her throat. After the attack, Farrey refused to call an ambulance and punched Hughes in the face when she tried to call one herself.
The couple had been married for less than two months at the time. Farrey was subsequently sentenced to five years in prison. He was released on parole in September 2006.
At the time of the attack, Hughes had been an associate at D'Amato & Lynch. She claimed in her 2004 civil suit against Farrey that her injuries had rendered her unable to work.
Acting Supreme Court Justice Howard Beeler granted her partial summary judgment in 2005. She won summary judgment from the Appellate Division, 1st Department, in June 2006.
In a decision last week on damages, Supreme Court Justice Louis B. York denied Hughes' claim that she was on partnership track at her firm, where she was paid a $109,000 salary. He said she had not advanced any testimony about her chances of making partner beyond her own assertion.
The judge awarded her $2.1 million in lost earnings based on her pay as an associate but also awarded her $4 million for pain and suffering.
He noted that witnesses had described Hughes as formerly living an active life in which she enjoyed bicycling, scuba diving, skiing and traveling.
"Now she rarely ventures out of her apartment," the judge noted in Hughes v. Farrey, 101633/04. "She was unable to return to work and has been labeled as unemployable by her internist and rehabilitation expert. Her mother brings her meals and a friend does her shopping for her. If anyone approaches her from behind, she becomes severely agitated. She will no longer ride the subway."
The judge also awarded Hughes $118,000 for psychotherapy sessions.
Hughes was represented by Frank Saia of Springfield, Mass., as well as Daniel L. Alterman of Alterman & Boop in Manhattan. Alterman said Tuesday the award "in some small measure vindicates [Ms. Hughes'] suffering due to the nightmarish conduct of the defendant."
Farrey's lawyer, Lawrence A. Porcari of Yonkers, Tuesday declined comment because he had not yet seen the decision.
