On Tuesday afternoon, April 29, a jury of six men and women rendered a $12.72 million verdict in favor of ten-year-old, Steven Lagoa, against his landlord, Joremi Enterprises.  Steven sustained lead poisoning at age 21 months in the apartment where he and his family lived.  He now has severe intellectual, behavioral and academic problems and has been placed in special classes in school.  His injuries are permanent and will affect his ability to graduate high school and to obtain employment. Steven’s lawyer, Alan M. Shapey, a partner of LIPSIG, SHAPEY, MANUS & MOVERMAN, P.C., said landlords have to learn to inspect their buildings for the presence of lead. . . .  This was an easily preventable tragedy, had the landlord spent a few hundred dollars to inspect and correct the condition. The two-week trial was conducted before Justice Alexander Hunter in Supreme Court, Bronx County.

Mr. Shapey, a partner in the Lipsig law firm, personally conducted the trial that lasted for two weeks.  Mr. Shapey also was the trial attorney in the case of Perkins v. Cosmopolitan Care Corp., where the verdict was for $50 million, one of the largest jury verdicts for lead poisoning in the history of the State of New York. The jury in this case heard evidence that Mr. Shapey presented about the New York City Department of Health’s site inspection that identified 19 lead paint hazards in our client’s apartment.  Mr. Shapey, established, through scientific and medical proof including medical and scientific research studies, that the Lipsig Law Firm’s client had lost significant intellectual capacity due to his exposure to lead paint in the defendant’s apartment building. Mr. Shapey also proved that the infant client’s lead paint poisoning caused severe behavioral disorders that required that the child receive special educational services.  Mr. Shapey was able to disprove the defense’s claims that the child’s problems were unrelated and due to various genetic factors.

Mr. Shapey and the Lipsig Law Firm represented this family from the beginning of this case and through the entire jury and verdict. The Lipsig Law firm will handle all of the post-verdict legal proceedings necessary to recover the full amount that the jury decided would be fair and reasonable in this case.