Buffalo Man Left With Brain Injury After 2017 Arrest Wins $2.9 Million From City, Cinema Operator and Ambulance Company
After trial: The case settled in 2023 after the Fourth Department affirmed denial of the City's and the ambulance company's dispositive motions. Reports differ slightly on the City's share ($1 million or $1.05 million) and the terms are otherwise not public.
Won by Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria.
Noah Giusiana was arrested in Buffalo in June 2017 after an off-duty police officer working security at a movie theater took him to the pavement. A brain bleed went unrecognized while he was held in a police cell, and he needed emergency surgery. In 2023 he settled his claims against the City of Buffalo and the other defendants for $2.9 million combined.
What happened
Noah Giusiana was leaving a late-night showing at a Buffalo movie theater in June 2017 when he and his brother began wrestling on the sidewalk outside. Theater staff intervened, and an off-duty Buffalo police officer working security at the cinema took Giusiana to the ground. Witnesses reported hearing his head strike the pavement. Buffalo police arrested him on minor charges, disorderly conduct and harassment, and did not treat the fall as a medical event.
Ambulance attendants from American Medical Response evaluated him at the scene. According to the Appellate Division's account, one of the EMTs cleared him for transport to central booking rather than a hospital. Giusiana was placed in a holding cell. There he suffered a seizure, and by the time he reached a hospital doctors found an acute subdural hematoma, bleeding between the skull and the brain. He underwent an emergency craniotomy and spent about ten days in a coma, according to press reports.
He survived, but the injury left lasting effects, including memory problems and a blind spot on his left side. Giusiana later spoke publicly about how much his life had changed since the arrest.
John A. Collins of Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria LLP represented him in a lawsuit in Erie County Supreme Court against the City of Buffalo, the Buffalo Police Department, unnamed officers, American Medical Response and the two EMTs. The claims included negligence, negligent hiring, civil rights violations under 42 U.S.C. 1983, and medical malpractice. The cinema operator and the security officer were also sued.
The defendants asked the trial court to end the case before trial, and the City and American Medical Response lost those motions. On August 4, 2022, the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, affirmed. It held that triable questions remained, including whether Giusiana had competently refused medical treatment and whether the EMTs performed the required assessments.
The case settled the following year. The City of Buffalo paid roughly $1 million, and the cinema operator, the ambulance company and the other defendants paid about $1.9 million, for a combined $2.9 million. The City's share was reported separately by Investigative Post as $1.05 million.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Giusiana v City of Buffalo, N.Y. Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Department, Aug. 4, 2022·Archived copy
- 2.Investigative Post, 'Spending more on settlements than services', Nov. 28, 2023·Archived copy
- 3.The Buffalo News, 'Arrest on minor charges nearly cost Buffalo man his life. Now he's won $2.9M in damages', 2023·Archived copy
- 4.Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria (firm)·Archived copy
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