Despite the fact that a man who was partially paralyzed during a charity bike ride signed a waiver, Philadelphia cannot escape liability for the 16-square-foot sinkhole that caused the crash, a judge has ruled in denying the city’s efforts to win a new trial in a case that resulted earlier this year in a more than $3 million verdict.
Judge Frederica Massiah-Jackson issued an opinion Wednesday in Degliomini v. Philadelphia Phillies, which resulted in a $3.2 million verdict for plaintiff Anthony Degliomini, who was partially paralyzed after crashing in the 2015 charity bike ride. Massiah-Jackson denied the city’s request for a new trial in the matter, but she also reduced the verdict to the $500,000 statutory damages cap for awards against state and political subdivisions.
