An appellate panel in Rochester has rejected as speculative an award of nearly $793,000 for future “care for potential children” in a case where a woman was rendered a quadriplegic but is still able to, and wants to, bear children. The Appellate Division, Fourth Department, cut the “potential children” award and reduced some other damages awarded by a jury, but still left Natalie M. Barnhard with about $44 million in a suit against Cybex International, an exercise equipment manufacturer in Massachusetts.
Ms. Barnhard was a physical therapy assistant at a clinic near Buffalo when the accident occurred. According to the decision, she pulled on a 600-poundplus leg extension machine to stretch her arm and shoulder and the machine, which was not bolted to the floor, fell on her. The jury apportioned 75 percent of the liability to Cybex, 20 percent to the clinic where Ms. Barnhard worked and 5 percent to the plaintiff.
