One of those bills is back rent over which the heartless apartment complex management tried to evict the family in the agonizing months that followed the accident.
It took a Philadelphia Common Pleas jury just six hours to find that the Park Lane East Apartment complex and the company it hired to run its swimming facility, Progressive Pool Management, were responsible for the accident that left Destine in a persistent vegetative state.
"They're very relieved," said Shanin Specter, who represented Destine in the lawsuit filed by her parents four months after the accident. "They've had this crushing burden in terms of providing for their daughter and they're terribly relieved to know there will be adequate funding."
Specter said the Weightmans had incurred more than $500,000 in bills in the 22 months since the accident.
Destine's father has had a chronic migraine condition that prevents him
from working. Her mother, a clerk for SEPTA, had taken off three months from work to be with her daughter at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The couple's three other children are between 2 and 9 years old.
In a cruel twist to their situation, Specter said Park Lane management had moved to evict the family from its apartment because the Weightmans had been unable to pay $1,700 in back rent in the months immediately following the
mishap.
Yesterday's award, however, will more than cover the rent. The $24 million is believed to be the largest compensatory claim ever awarded in the state.
Specter said the award is intended to cover past and future medical expenses, as well as lost earnings and pain and suffering. He estimated the cost of 16-hour nursing supervision to be $200,000 a year.
The five-woman, five-man jury found that Progressive Pool, of Wilmington, Del., was 75 percent responsible for the accident and Park Lane East was 25 percent responsible.
