$5.75 Million Verdict for Union Carpenter With Stage III CRPS After Drill Bit Wrapped His Ulnar Nerve
Won by Horwitz, Horwitz & Associates.
A Cook County jury awarded $5,745,600 to Local 10 journeyman carpenter Gary Markovich after a superintendent's drill bit wrapped his ulnar nerve during work at Northwestern Prentice Women's Hospital, producing stage III CRPS that ended his career, at the time the largest non-amputation hand-injury verdict in Illinois history.
What happened
Gary Markovich was a journeyman carpenter and member of Carpenters Local 10 working for Ventura Enterprises, a subcontractor hired by general contractor ISEC, Inc. to install partitions and changing-room doors in the basement of Northwestern Prentice Women's Hospital in Chicago. On the morning of the incident, an ISEC superintendent stepped in to assist with door installation. Within two minutes, the superintendent drilled straight through Markovich's dominant right hand.
The drill bit wrapped Markovich's ulnar nerve, triggering a cascade of damage that his treating physicians diagnosed as stage III CRPS-II, also known as causalgia, the most severe classification of complex regional pain syndrome and one that indicated confirmed nerve involvement. All three of Markovich's treating doctors testified that he could never return to work as a carpenter or to any occupation requiring normal hand function. The medications required to manage his pain added a further barrier to employment.
Markovich initially sought counsel from another Chicago personal injury firm, which told him he had no third-party case. He then retained Clifford Horwitz and Jay Luchsinger of Horwitz, Horwitz and Associates. The firm filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court (No. 09 L 8227). ISEC's insurer, Liberty Mutual, made no settlement offer throughout five years of litigation.
At trial, the firm argued that ISEC violated its own worksite safety procedures by allowing an untrained supervisor to operate a drill in proximity to another worker without proper protocols. The defense contested liability and challenged the extent of the injury. After a week-long trial, twelve Cook County jurors returned a verdict of $5,745,600 in favor of Markovich.
The Illinois Jury Verdict Reporter, published by Law Bulletin Media, confirmed the award as the largest verdict in Illinois for a non-amputation hand injury, exceeding the prior record of $4.2 million. No appellate reduction of the verdict has been reported in publicly available court records.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
More proven verdicts from Horwitz, Horwitz & Associates
All Horwitz, Horwitz & Associates proven verdicts →A Cook County jury awarded $64 million to Ronald Bayer, a union ironworker paralyzed from the neck down after falling 15 feet at a Panduit Corp. warehouse construction site in DeKalb, Illinois, at the time the largest verdict ever returned for a quadriplegic in Illinois.
A Cook County jury awarded $32 million to truck driver Stephanie Johnson, who developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome after slipping on oil at an ExxonMobil facility, in what the Jury Verdict Reporter recorded as the largest CRPS verdict in Illinois history.
A Cook County jury awarded $10 million to a dentist who developed bilateral Complex Regional Pain Syndrome after a delivery worker's overloaded hand truck struck her leg at a Lincolnwood Walgreens in 2012, setting what the Illinois Jury Verdict Reporter confirmed as the largest CRPS injury verdict in state history at the time.
Electrician Frank Russo was injured in July 2013 when a crane at Corey Steel's plant struck the man-lift he was working in, leaving him with hip, shoulder, back, elbow and finger injuries. Corey Steel admitted liability, and a Cook County jury awarded $9,987,000 in damages in 2017. A successor judge ordered a new trial over a future hip surgery opinion, and the Illinois Appellate Court reversed that order in December 2018, so the verdict stood.
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