DISPATCHES FROM THE FRONT: Negligent Hedge-Trimming by Condo Association Cited In Death of 9 Yr. Old Boy

The jury ultimately found the driver 10 percent responsible, the condominium association 30 percent responsible, and the property managers 60 percent responsible for the child’s tragic death. The ruling has triggered a whirlwind of hedge-clipping activity at the entrances of many community associations throughout the county.

 

Parents to get $12M verdict in son’s 2011 bicycle death in Jupiter

Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015
By Jane Musgrave – Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

WEST PALM BEACH — 

Two years after a Palm Beach County jury blamed negligent hedge-trimming by a Jupiter condominium association for the death of a 9-year-old boy, his parents will finally get the $12 million jurors said they deserve.

Less than a week after the 4th District Court of Appeal upheld the 2013 verdict, attorneys for Villas on the Green condominium association and its property management company, MMI of the Palm Beaches, on Tuesday said insurers are going to write the eight-figure check to the parents of Andrew Connor Curtis, said their attorney Matthew Schwencke.

The youth, who was riding bicycles on the sidewalk with his father, Andre Kovacs, was killed when an elderly condo resident, who couldn’t see over the hedges, plowed into him in as she was driving out of the complex on U.S. 1 just south of Indiantown Road in 2011.

With interest and court costs, he said the parents should split about $12.5 million. But, he said, the real impact of the case isn’t the cash that is going to the parents, who are still devastated by the enormity of the loss that no amount of money can repay. The verdict, he said, sent a warning to condominium associations throughout Palm Beach County about the potential liability they face by ignoring something as simple as making sure hedges don’t obstruct drivers’ views.  Read more: http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/news/local/parents-to-get-12m-verdict-in-sons-2011-bicycle-de/nnxR8/