Man who lost five toes in MTA accident scores $22.75 million verdict
The MTA should pay an arm and a leg to a bike delivery man who lost all five digits on his left foot in a fall from a crumbling Bronx subway platform, a jury said Monday — delivering a whopping $22.75 million verdict in favor of the victim.
4 Bicycle delivery worker Maruf Hossain lost all his toes on his left foot and suffered numerous other injuries when he tripped on a crumbling subway platform in The Bronx and fell in the path of a train, his suit said.
Perdita Barchuk
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Maruf Hossain, then 24, was seriously injured in June 2017 when he tripped on a damaged Parkchester platform, sending him to the tracks below as a train pulled into the station.
All of the toes on the Bangladeshi-born worker's left foot were severed, and the train hit him with such force that it dislocated his hip, fractured his pelvis and left him with head trauma and spinal fractures, his suit said.
Hossain told the court he will need constant medical care for the rest of his life, plus help at home with chores.
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4 The victim's toes on his left foot were all severed by the train.
Perdita Barchuk
While Hossain's original lawsuit sought $20 million in damages, the MTA tried to strong arm him into a settlement of $100,000, his lawyer told The Post.
Now nearly eight years later, the jury ended up awarding $2.75 million more than what Hossain originally sought.
'After years of the Transit Authority trying to bully me into an unfair settlement, the jury saw through their lies and gave me a second chance at living a normal life,' Hossain said in a statement to The Post.
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His lawyer, Nick Liakas, added that the case 'highlights the efforts that the New York City transit authority will go to to avoid their responsibility towards innocent New Yorkers.
'The client had tripped on a defect on the yellow portion of a very narrow train platform,' Liakas said.
4 This is the section of Parkchester south-bound No. 6 train platform that Hossain said caused his fall.
Perdita Barchuk
'The transit authority maintained that the plaintiff tried to commit suicide and jumped and that there was no defect at the area where he claimed to fall.
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'They had a teenage witness who testified that she saw him jump in front of the train … along with a transit authority cleaner who testified he heard, 'Don't jump, don't jump,' ' the lawyer said.
'We showed that the transit authority likely authored the witness statement themselves and passed it off as an independent statement. The jury agreed.'
Hossain had sued the MTA for negligence six months after the accident, claiming the agency was negligent in maintaining the subway platform that caused him to plummet to the tracks.
When first responders arrived at the early morning Bronx nightmare, they found the train had already severed Hossain's five toes — with an expert witness calling his foot 'truly mangled,' according to court documents.
Monday's verdict could still be appealed or further challenged in post-trial motions.
4 The jury verdict means his lost toes could cost the MTA more than $22 million.
Perdita Barchuk
'The MTA is reviewing the verdict while assessing all legal options,' said MTA rep Meghan Keegan told The Post on Tuesday.
The outside law firm that represented the agency, Landman Corsi Ballaine & Ford, did not respond to Post requests for comment.
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While the amount is staggering, it is not the largest jury award against the MTA.
Last fall, a man hit by a Big Apple train was awarded a stunning $90 million verdict. But the award was recently reduced in a post-trial motion to less than half that amount — just under $40 million, court documents show.
In 2024, jurors also handed a $72.5 million verdict to a cancer patient hit by an MTA bus.
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And in 2019, a young man paralyzed by a falling city railroad tie won a stunning $110 million verdict.
It's not clear whether the complete 2019 and cancer-patient awards were upheld.
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