Facts: On Nov. 28, 1982, 34-year-old Toni Streets was riding in a car being driven by her fiancé, Donald Johnson, on Philadelphia’s Allegheny Avenue. The road not only was wet but also was bisected by a set of trolley tracks which were surrounded by granite blocks. To avoid the water-filled depressions in the road, Johnson steered the car toward the tracks, hoping to find better traction and a smoother ride.

The track was, however, raised well above the road surface in several spots, and Johnson decided to move back to the adjacent road. Moving back out of the track line, the car hit a raised track, jumped into the oncoming lane of traffic and collided head-on with another car. Toni Street’s hip and pelvic area were crushed. Large fragments of bone pierced her abdominal cavity. She spent the next six months in the hospital, underwent surgery 10 times, and nearly died from a severe intestinal infection which resulted from the hip injury. Because of bone fusion during the healing process, she is paralyzed in one hip. Damage to a femur has shortened one leg over an inch, causing a lateral gait and continual back pain. She is also severely disfigured.

For at least five years, South East Philadelphia Transit Authority inspectors were aware that the stretch of road was in poor condition, but nothing was ever done.

S. Gerald Litvin and Gerald A. McHugh, Jr. of Philadelphia represented Toni Streets (later Toni Johnson).

On Nov. 10, a jury found SEPTA 60 percent negligent and the state Department of Transportation 40 percent negligent. It awarded Toni Streets Johnson $15 million.

Argument: The plaintiff contended that dangerous road conditions were shrugged off by the municipality for over five years. Litvin and McHugh suggest that the stonewalling of defense witnesses may well have further aggravated the jurors.

“These people showed no concern for the traveling public, and excess concern for bureaucratic infighting,” McHugh recalls. “They owned up to nothing. And the friction between the city, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and SEPTA really offended the jury.”

Plaintiff attorneys also stressed Toni Johnson herself: an overachiever who had worked her way from a $5,500-a-year salary to $30,000. “She was, in a sense, the embodiment of the American Dream in today’s world,” says Litvin.

Upshot: Post-trial motions have started the appeal process. Litvin says that collecting a substantial settlement will be a problem because of Pennsylvania’s cap on damages.