August 22, 2023 • 24 mins
In Episode 1 of this three-part series, you will meet Tierney Darden, a young woman who suffered a life-changing injury at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in 2015.
Tierney, her mom, and one of her sisters had just flown home from Minnesota, where they were shopping for bridesmaids’ dresses for an upcoming family wedding. As they were waiting outside the airport to be picked up by Tierney’s dad, a strong storm blew through the area. The ladies sought shelter behind a pedestrian vestibule. Unfortunately, the shelters had deteriorated and were not secured to the pavement. The shelter Tierney and her family were behind dislodged from the fasteners and collapsed on top of Tierney, severing her spinal cord.
This is the story of how Tierney pursued justice against the city of Chicago, which owned and operated O’Hare Airport and was, therefore, ultimately responsible for maintaining the condition of the shelters.
Visit https://www.salvilaw.com/podcast/ for more information on Tierney’s case and the show.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
From the Chicagoland law firm ofSalvi, Schostok and Pritchard.
This is beating Goliath.
A plaintiff's pursuit of justice.
Case number three, part one.
Tierney darden versus the city of Chicago.
We had just come back froma trip from Minneapolis.
(00:27):
My daughter was engaged, and we werelooking at bridesmaid's dresses.
So we were leaving the airport, and we
were going to the last street whereyou get to be picked up by people.
I remember going out, and it was, like,
slightly raining, and we were waitingfor my dad to come pick me up.
(00:49):
At the time I was heading there, itstarted raining pretty hard, and then.
The storm blew in.
It was very windy, very rainy,and we were seeking shelter.
I thought, oh, look,there's a bus shelter.
And we can't go inside because therain would come right in with us.
We'll go on the other side because it'sa big, heavy, metal, glass structure.
(01:13):
I think there was hail going on.
I went behind the shelter, and I know wewere laughing about something, and then
next thing I know, I thought I heard ascream, and I thought it was my sister.
And next thing I know is I'm running,and I get hit in the head.
(01:34):
I see, like, a white flash, and then
I'm on the ground, andmy legs went completely numb.
Literally, the next thing we know,this structure is falling on top of us.
And then I looked over to see who wasthere, and my youngest daughter was gone.
(01:55):
So I was like, okay.
Somehow she managed to bolt out of there,
and there's tierney on the otherend, and she's crouched down.
She's, like, on her knees, and she's all
crouched down, and thestructure is on top.
But I'm yelling at her to get out, and she
looks at me, and she says,I can't feel my legs.
(02:23):
I don't think I felt pain.
It was more the tingling and then me
knowing immediately thatsomething was wrong.
And I assumed it was me being paralyzed.
At one point, they tried to lift up the
shelter, and they kepttelling me to crawl out.
And I told them I couldn't move.
I wasn't able to move at all.
(02:44):
At that moment, I knewsomething was horribly wrong.
My little sister got, like, pissed offbecause some people were taking pictures.
That's what people do.
Shortly thereafter, there were all these
hands as they werepicking up the structure.
And of course, after they didthat, she still couldn't move.
(03:07):
But we were afraid because I didn't wantthe structure to fall down on her again.
So we did pull her out to thestreet and again, not moving.
I got out of my vehicle,
saw, stepped into, essentially,I guess it's the taxicab lane.
(03:27):
And saw the crowd of people aroundtyranny and tyranny on the ground.
I knew something bad had happened.
We knew it was severe then.
I mean, because she couldn'tget up, she couldn't move.
She was in a lot of pain, lying there,very uncomfortable because of the rain.
They put her in the ambulance,took her to the hospital.
She was there for about a week or so.
(03:47):
It doesn't matter how old your child is.
Your child is gravely injured.
And going to see your child in an
intensive care unit whenthere are tubes everywhere, instruments
everywhere, machineseverywhere, noises everywhere.
(04:08):
And you're watching your daughter, who
looks so small on that bedcompared to all of the equipment.
You're always scared becauseyou're not in charge.
It wasn't until later on, after they had
finished doing preliminary look at her,that we knew actually how severe it was.
She was paralyzed, wasn'texpected to ever walk again.
(04:35):
I wasn't surprised, but I was also upsetbecause I had been dancing my whole life.
I love to walk.
I knew I was paralyzed, butthem telling me how severe it was and that
it wasn't gonna,like I wasn't gonna get better.
(04:58):
Like, it crushed me.
How did something that heavy that should
have been bolted to thepavement fall on top of us?
There is no reason thatthat should happen.
My name is Patrick Ssalvi.
I am the managing partner atSalvi, Schostok and Pritchard.
(05:21):
I was alerted to the fact thata serious case had come in.
And I was asked to be part of a teamto meet with tyranny at the hospital, with
her family and be interviewed for possiblybeing chosen as the law firm to represent
her in a cause of action against whomeverwas responsible for this terrible tragedy.
(05:47):
I just remember Mr.
Salvi coming fairly recent
after the accident and immediatelyagain because of his calm manner.
It's like, okay, one less thing I have to
worry about because he'sgoing to take care of that.
(06:09):
I can now just focus on my daughter.
The doctors knewthat this was a severe permanent
spinal cord injury that wouldresult in permanent paraplegia.
That wasn't a situation where they do anoperation and you hope you get better.
The injury to the cord was so severethat all they could do was decompress
(06:35):
by a surgical procedure and to prevent anyfurther swelling and damage and stabilize
the back so that she couldbegin rehabilitation.
Terry's early weeks startedoff at the lutheran general.
So she was there for about a week or so,
then went to what was thenrehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
(06:58):
Ric and is now known asShirley Ryan Ability Lab.
Ric was fantastic.
We had to go there where they showed ushow they taught her to do some things,
especially the process ofgetting it in and out of a car.
Sometimes I didn't know how to get her to
(07:18):
know on the toilet, into theshower, those kinds of things.
I'm Tara Devine.
I'm a partner at Salvi,Schostok, and Pritchard.
I work in Lake CCountyounty asmanaging partner of our Joaquin office.
I also was born and raised in Lakecounty and currently live there now.
And so immediately when I heard aboutthis case, I knew where the family lived.
(07:41):
I felt a greater connection.
It was as if it happened to aneighbor that you grew up next to.
So I was brought in because we knew that
there was going to have to be a lot ofclient communication and client contact.
One of the most important things a lawyer
can do is really get to know the plight,the day to day, the hardest things
(08:07):
in terms of physically,emotionally, how you feel.
You've got to spend the time
to really know it, and then you'remuch better position of presenting it.
I went to go see them at Ric beforeshe even got released to go back home.
She was just heavily medicated,kind of in and out of sedation.
(08:29):
At the beginning, I was probably taking,
I don't know, maybe ten to 20different kinds of medicine.
Most of it was probably opioids.
So my days were kind ofblurred together and hazy.
There were neuropathic pain medications.
(08:50):
There were pain medications.
She was on a number of opioids, and
because of the opioids, that wouldthrow off her intestinal system.
So she was on medications to helpkeep her from her stools, from clogging
her up, from her beingconstipated and impacted.
She was on bladder relaxantsor bladder stimulants.
(09:12):
She frequently would get urinary tract
infections, and then thatwould require antibiotics.
She was on supplements, antianxiety
medications, medications just tohelp her work through the day.
I would say she was on at one time, she'dbe on up to 2025 prescription medications.
(09:39):
There were times whenI would take the medicine and
I would be still in so much pain that Iwould be crying for more, because I
thought that that was theonly way to help suppress it.
And instead, it just made me more groggy,
and I was falling asleep on people, andI was literally staying in bed 24/7.
(10:06):
Once she's discharged from rehab.
There were some wonderful volunteers thatwent to work on the house that her dad
lived in, that David lived in, sothat they could get it prepared.
But that took, as you canimagine, weeks, if not months.
And so she lived for months, weeks upon
weeks, at a hotel in Vernon Hills withher mom and her dad constantly there.
(10:32):
And her mom would spend thenight, and they would stay there.
And this hotel room was packedwith medical supplies and diapers.
This was not a Four Seasons.
Before the accident, I mean, shewas older, she was out of the house.
She was independent afterwards.
(10:55):
I'm living with my daughter for sixmonths in a tiny little hotel room.
We are sleeping in the same bed, andI am taking care of bodily functions.
I would go visit with clothes in there and
medical supplies and foodfrom the night before.
You go from normal,where you're happy go lucky, you're
(11:16):
dancing, you have your wholewonderful life ahead of you.
You can just get up and go and dowhatever you want, whenever you want.
You don't even give a second thought to.
You just get up and go and enjoy lifeas a young, energetic, happy young lady.
(11:36):
Know, every day is.
You have an exhaustive bowel program.
You're catheterized to urinate multipletimes during the course of the day.
Every day is just a struggle.
I remember Trudy telling me one morning,and Trudy looked like she had a rough
(11:57):
night, and she know, and I kind of likeit looks like you've had a rough night.
Is everything okay?
What can you know?
And she said, do you know how hard it is
to lay next to your daughter and listento her cry herself to sleep at night?
(12:17):
And it just resonated with me.
Our plaintiff in the case was tyranny.
But you almost wish that you could get
something for what herparents went through.
From the moment they woke up to the
morning, the moment when they went to bed,their lives were turned upside down, too.
Once she got a little bit more stabilizeda few weeks down the road, it was
(12:42):
going to work, going to see tyranny,checking on the family animals, making
sure they were okay, sleeping, andthen doing the whole same thing again.
This was no fairy tale or recovery.
It was a really hard road for all of them.
And to say, like, an adjustmentis not the right word to use.
What's the hashtag now?
(13:04):
Like, girl dad or whatever.That's what David was.
He was a girl dad for the mom, Trudy.
Both of them would have done anythingfor any one of their daughters.
They showed that time and time again by
showing up every single day andmaking sure that she was never alone.
Tierney kind of wears herheart on her sleeve sometimes.
I think she was very depressed.
(13:24):
I didn't really seemuch happiness in my life.
It was slow moving, a blur.
I was a sad person.
I didn't really care to do anything.
I didn't care to work out.
I didn't care to take care of myself.
I didn't care to talk to people.
(13:46):
What helped me fill thevoid the most was my family.
They have been there since thebeginning, haven't left my side once.
There is not really much we can do forattorney other than to be there for her.
There will always be a part of me thatwas taken away and I can't get back.
Dance was like my life.
(14:07):
I danced a lot before the accident.
From my first recitalon, I was, like, hooked.
How sad it was to see a young lady whose
main joy in life was dancingand wanted to operate a dance studio.
(14:29):
As a profession,of course, that was taken from her
and then was afflicted withthis terrible pain syndrome.
I do believe that had this happen to
someone else,innately in their nature, was not an
optimistic, positive, love theworld type of girl or young adult.
(14:52):
I could easily see otherpeople throwing in the towel.
That wasn't an option for her, andI knew it wasn't an option for her.
Not because she physically ormentally wouldn't have wanted to.
It was because the love that she had for
those around her, she couldnever do that to her family.
She would never do that to her parents,to her sisters, to her nieces and nephews.
(15:13):
She would not do that.
It wasn't for several weeks, if notmonths, before I actually got like a small
window into the real tyranny and how thiswas really impacting her and being able to
have a conversation with the daughterthat her mom and dad knew her to be.
She was a beautiful, despiteeverything that she was going through.
(15:37):
She just naturally has a lightshining from within her tyranny.
Despite everything that she went through,I think her entire life, she was just
someone who had a bright,shining light inside of her.
And I truly believe that it was her innate
nature and positivitythat got her through.
(16:01):
It was clear thatthe accident happened as a result of a
failure to maintainand repair the shelter.
We knew the city ownedand operated the airport.
We weren't certain whether any third partywas involved, but we certainly knew that
the city ultimately was responsiblefor the condition of the shelters.
(16:22):
When you have a case like thisand there's no litigation.
It's not like a malpractice case where you
can have the client signauthorizations and get medical records.
You can't get the records from the city of
Chicago or the airportunless you have a lawsuit.
There was a meritorious basis to sue the
city of Chicago, at the veryleast, and that's what we did.
(16:45):
This was something that was so avoidable,
proper maintenance of those shelters,and this wouldn't have happened.
I'm pissed.
I'm upset that something that could havebeen fixed kind of ruined part of my life.
My job was to make assignments to the
(17:08):
various members of the trial teamin terms of who would do what.
My name is Eirene Nakamura Salvi, and I'm
an associate attorney atSalvi, Schostok and Pritchard.
The first time I met Tierney, I went to
her house in Bernon Hillswith Pat senior and Tara.
She was really, really suffering.
(17:29):
I mean, it was really hard for herto even get out of bed to talk to us.
There's just something about tyrannythat you can't help but like.
Tierney is just about a year younger thanme, and we kind of listened to this
similar music, and we hadsome similar interests.
To see her and get to know her as somebodywho's more of my peer was an interesting
(17:52):
experience, and it wascertainly a motivating factor.
Just knowing that to have all of that
taken away from you in aninstant, it's unimaginable.
I'm Patrick Salvi, Jr.
And I'm the managing partner of the
Chicago office at Salvi,Schostok, and Pritchard.
My role on the trial team was to work with
(18:14):
the rest of the team members in ourstrategy leading into the trial.
I met Tierney abouttwo years after she was injured.
I went to her home.
I was really in awe of her ability to
converse with us, have a smile on her facethrough the adversity she was facing, and
(18:40):
to really be able to focuson the task at hand.
Tierney was incredibly strong, and I
learned that really, withinmoments of meeting her.
We were really round tabling, kind of whatthe next steps would be and getting all of
the information about Tierney's continuingtreatment because she had so many
(19:02):
different doctors and all of these issuesthat were going on, and really just kind
of gearing up to do all the research andget her ducks, all her ducks in a row, and
to have the cityeventually admit liability.
We deposed virtually every person
that could have anything whatsoever to dowith that part of the terminal, the bus
(19:24):
shelters, the maintainingof the bus shelters.
We took dozens and dozens of depositions
of employees of the city of Chicago,worked at the airport, and basically
discovered that no one was responsible forchecking these bus shelters.
Everyone else thought some otherdepartment or person would do it.
(19:46):
There clearly was no routine designated
individual to do inspections andmaintenance on these shelters.
In essence, I think their plan was when
something breaks or falls,then you take care of it.
At the end of the day, the city was leftwith the decision of, hey, we throw up our
hands and we are responsible,we accept liability.
(20:09):
But they didn't do it until webrought them to their knees.
The city of Chicago didn't admit
negligence until maybesix months before trial.
It was a lot of work that went into this.
They fought really hard against admission
of negligence, obviously, because theyknew that this was a significant case with
(20:30):
significant injuries andexposure for the city.
It was actually in the defendant'sbest interest to admit liability.
People, jurors and laypeople think,well, you want people to admit liability.
That makes for an easier trial, and then
you don't have to worry abouta not guilty yes and no.
The disadvantage to the defendant'sadmitted liability, though, is then you
(20:53):
don't get to go intoif it was egregious conduct, or even like
above and beyond which, in this case, wehad to prove conscious disregard for the
safety of others because it wasagainst the city of Chicago.
We had our goals in mindset as to what thecase was worth, and we just didn't really
think that the city would comeclose enough for it to take care of
(21:18):
tyranny or to fully compensate herfor what they took away from her.
I didn't really think the case was goingto settle because
I just think we were on differentwavelengths in terms of the value of the
case, what the appropriatecompensation should be.
Their best settlement offer was in the $30to $35 million range
(21:42):
and never really indicated awillingness to go much above that.
It became pretty evident that the twosides had just very different value
propositions as to what aninjury like this was worth.
I thought that their initial offers were
low, especially once ourquality of life report came out.
The expert had said, attorney willneed this for the rest of her life.
(22:06):
It wasn't enough.
We're telling them, turn this away becausewe feel that we're going to be able to get
more from a jury and that the caseis worth more than they're offering.
The city was insuredwith a $500 million dollar liability
policy, so it wasn't a situationwhere, like in a police shooting.
(22:28):
They have to go tothe city council and get approval and say,
we'd like you to authorize apayment of x amount of dollars.
This was insurance money, so it was
another reason why we really feltit was a very good case to try.
There really isn't an amount of money that
any human being would acceptto have tyranny's existence.
(22:52):
The compensatory damages in a caselike this ought to be extraordinary.
The team was talking about potentially
asking for as much as$100 million from a jury.
I asked the question, whywouldn't we ask for $200 million?
(23:13):
In our next episode, Tierney'Beatings
attorneys prepare for trial and maketheir case against the city of Chicago.
But will their arguments be enough to
convince a jury to award hera record breaking verdict?
Listen in to see if the trial team makes
the right decision in turning down amulti million dollar settlement offer.
When you turn down a settlement, you do
not know until you get a verdictif you made the right decision.
(23:37):
Special thanks to Tierney Dardenfor allowing us to share her story.
You can find more episodes of beating
Goliath on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,or wherever you get your podcasts.
To learn more about this casein our firm, head to www.
salvilaw.com podcast.
From the Chicagoland law firm ofSalvi, Schostok and Pritchard.
This is beating Goliath.
A plaintiff's pursuit of justice.
Case number three, part one.
Tierney darden versus the city of Chicago.
We had just come back froma trip from Minneapolis.
(00:27):
My daughter was engaged, and we werelooking at bridesmaid's dresses.
So we were leaving the airport, and we
were going to the last street whereyou get to be picked up by people.
I remember going out, and it was, like,
slightly raining, and we were waitingfor my dad to come pick me up.
(00:49):
At the time I was heading there, itstarted raining pretty hard, and then.
The storm blew in.
It was very windy, very rainy,and we were seeking shelter.
I thought, oh, look,there's a bus shelter.
And we can't go inside because therain would come right in with us.
We'll go on the other side because it'sa big, heavy, metal, glass structure.
(01:13):
I think there was hail going on.
I went behind the shelter, and I know wewere laughing about something, and then
next thing I know, I thought I heard ascream, and I thought it was my sister.
And next thing I know is I'm running,and I get hit in the head.
(01:34):
I see, like, a white flash, and then
I'm on the ground, andmy legs went completely numb.
Literally, the next thing we know,this structure is falling on top of us.
And then I looked over to see who wasthere, and my youngest daughter was gone.
(01:55):
So I was like, okay.
Somehow she managed to bolt out of there,
and there's tierney on the otherend, and she's crouched down.
She's, like, on her knees, and she's all
crouched down, and thestructure is on top.
But I'm yelling at her to get out, and she
looks at me, and she says,I can't feel my legs.
(02:23):
I don't think I felt pain.
It was more the tingling and then me
knowing immediately thatsomething was wrong.
And I assumed it was me being paralyzed.
At one point, they tried to lift up the
shelter, and they kepttelling me to crawl out.
And I told them I couldn't move.
I wasn't able to move at all.
(02:44):
At that moment, I knewsomething was horribly wrong.
My little sister got, like, pissed offbecause some people were taking pictures.
That's what people do.
Shortly thereafter, there were all these
hands as they werepicking up the structure.
And of course, after they didthat, she still couldn't move.
(03:07):
But we were afraid because I didn't wantthe structure to fall down on her again.
So we did pull her out to thestreet and again, not moving.
I got out of my vehicle,
saw, stepped into, essentially,I guess it's the taxicab lane.
(03:27):
And saw the crowd of people aroundtyranny and tyranny on the ground.
I knew something bad had happened.
We knew it was severe then.
I mean, because she couldn'tget up, she couldn't move.
She was in a lot of pain, lying there,very uncomfortable because of the rain.
They put her in the ambulance,took her to the hospital.
She was there for about a week or so.
(03:47):
It doesn't matter how old your child is.
Your child is gravely injured.
And going to see your child in an
intensive care unit whenthere are tubes everywhere, instruments
everywhere, machineseverywhere, noises everywhere.
(04:08):
And you're watching your daughter, who
looks so small on that bedcompared to all of the equipment.
You're always scared becauseyou're not in charge.
It wasn't until later on, after they had
finished doing preliminary look at her,that we knew actually how severe it was.
She was paralyzed, wasn'texpected to ever walk again.
(04:35):
I wasn't surprised, but I was also upsetbecause I had been dancing my whole life.
I love to walk.
I knew I was paralyzed, butthem telling me how severe it was and that
it wasn't gonna,like I wasn't gonna get better.
(04:58):
Like, it crushed me.
How did something that heavy that should
have been bolted to thepavement fall on top of us?
There is no reason thatthat should happen.
My name is Patrick Ssalvi.
I am the managing partner atSalvi, Schostok and Pritchard.
(05:21):
I was alerted to the fact thata serious case had come in.
And I was asked to be part of a teamto meet with tyranny at the hospital, with
her family and be interviewed for possiblybeing chosen as the law firm to represent
her in a cause of action against whomeverwas responsible for this terrible tragedy.
(05:47):
I just remember Mr.
Salvi coming fairly recent
after the accident and immediatelyagain because of his calm manner.
It's like, okay, one less thing I have to
worry about because he'sgoing to take care of that.
(06:09):
I can now just focus on my daughter.
The doctors knewthat this was a severe permanent
spinal cord injury that wouldresult in permanent paraplegia.
That wasn't a situation where they do anoperation and you hope you get better.
The injury to the cord was so severethat all they could do was decompress
(06:35):
by a surgical procedure and to prevent anyfurther swelling and damage and stabilize
the back so that she couldbegin rehabilitation.
Terry's early weeks startedoff at the lutheran general.
So she was there for about a week or so,
then went to what was thenrehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
(06:58):
Ric and is now known asShirley Ryan Ability Lab.
Ric was fantastic.
We had to go there where they showed ushow they taught her to do some things,
especially the process ofgetting it in and out of a car.
Sometimes I didn't know how to get her to
(07:18):
know on the toilet, into theshower, those kinds of things.
I'm Tara Devine.
I'm a partner at Salvi,Schostok, and Pritchard.
I work in Lake CCountyounty asmanaging partner of our Joaquin office.
I also was born and raised in Lakecounty and currently live there now.
And so immediately when I heard aboutthis case, I knew where the family lived.
(07:41):
I felt a greater connection.
It was as if it happened to aneighbor that you grew up next to.
So I was brought in because we knew that
there was going to have to be a lot ofclient communication and client contact.
One of the most important things a lawyer
can do is really get to know the plight,the day to day, the hardest things
(08:07):
in terms of physically,emotionally, how you feel.
You've got to spend the time
to really know it, and then you'remuch better position of presenting it.
I went to go see them at Ric beforeshe even got released to go back home.
She was just heavily medicated,kind of in and out of sedation.
(08:29):
At the beginning, I was probably taking,
I don't know, maybe ten to 20different kinds of medicine.
Most of it was probably opioids.
So my days were kind ofblurred together and hazy.
There were neuropathic pain medications.
(08:50):
There were pain medications.
She was on a number of opioids, and
because of the opioids, that wouldthrow off her intestinal system.
So she was on medications to helpkeep her from her stools, from clogging
her up, from her beingconstipated and impacted.
She was on bladder relaxantsor bladder stimulants.
(09:12):
She frequently would get urinary tract
infections, and then thatwould require antibiotics.
She was on supplements, antianxiety
medications, medications just tohelp her work through the day.
I would say she was on at one time, she'dbe on up to 2025 prescription medications.
(09:39):
There were times whenI would take the medicine and
I would be still in so much pain that Iwould be crying for more, because I
thought that that was theonly way to help suppress it.
And instead, it just made me more groggy,
and I was falling asleep on people, andI was literally staying in bed 24/7.
(10:06):
Once she's discharged from rehab.
There were some wonderful volunteers thatwent to work on the house that her dad
lived in, that David lived in, sothat they could get it prepared.
But that took, as you canimagine, weeks, if not months.
And so she lived for months, weeks upon
weeks, at a hotel in Vernon Hills withher mom and her dad constantly there.
(10:32):
And her mom would spend thenight, and they would stay there.
And this hotel room was packedwith medical supplies and diapers.
This was not a Four Seasons.
Before the accident, I mean, shewas older, she was out of the house.
She was independent afterwards.
(10:55):
I'm living with my daughter for sixmonths in a tiny little hotel room.
We are sleeping in the same bed, andI am taking care of bodily functions.
I would go visit with clothes in there and
medical supplies and foodfrom the night before.
You go from normal,where you're happy go lucky, you're
(11:16):
dancing, you have your wholewonderful life ahead of you.
You can just get up and go and dowhatever you want, whenever you want.
You don't even give a second thought to.
You just get up and go and enjoy lifeas a young, energetic, happy young lady.
(11:36):
Know, every day is.
You have an exhaustive bowel program.
You're catheterized to urinate multipletimes during the course of the day.
Every day is just a struggle.
I remember Trudy telling me one morning,and Trudy looked like she had a rough
(11:57):
night, and she know, and I kind of likeit looks like you've had a rough night.
Is everything okay?
What can you know?
And she said, do you know how hard it is
to lay next to your daughter and listento her cry herself to sleep at night?
(12:17):
And it just resonated with me.
Our plaintiff in the case was tyranny.
But you almost wish that you could get
something for what herparents went through.
From the moment they woke up to the
morning, the moment when they went to bed,their lives were turned upside down, too.
Once she got a little bit more stabilizeda few weeks down the road, it was
(12:42):
going to work, going to see tyranny,checking on the family animals, making
sure they were okay, sleeping, andthen doing the whole same thing again.
This was no fairy tale or recovery.
It was a really hard road for all of them.
And to say, like, an adjustmentis not the right word to use.
What's the hashtag now?
(13:04):
Like, girl dad or whatever.That's what David was.
He was a girl dad for the mom, Trudy.
Both of them would have done anythingfor any one of their daughters.
They showed that time and time again by
showing up every single day andmaking sure that she was never alone.
Tierney kind of wears herheart on her sleeve sometimes.
I think she was very depressed.
(13:24):
I didn't really seemuch happiness in my life.
It was slow moving, a blur.
I was a sad person.
I didn't really care to do anything.
I didn't care to work out.
I didn't care to take care of myself.
I didn't care to talk to people.
(13:46):
What helped me fill thevoid the most was my family.
They have been there since thebeginning, haven't left my side once.
There is not really much we can do forattorney other than to be there for her.
There will always be a part of me thatwas taken away and I can't get back.
Dance was like my life.
(14:07):
I danced a lot before the accident.
From my first recitalon, I was, like, hooked.
How sad it was to see a young lady whose
main joy in life was dancingand wanted to operate a dance studio.
(14:29):
As a profession,of course, that was taken from her
and then was afflicted withthis terrible pain syndrome.
I do believe that had this happen to
someone else,innately in their nature, was not an
optimistic, positive, love theworld type of girl or young adult.
(14:52):
I could easily see otherpeople throwing in the towel.
That wasn't an option for her, andI knew it wasn't an option for her.
Not because she physically ormentally wouldn't have wanted to.
It was because the love that she had for
those around her, she couldnever do that to her family.
She would never do that to her parents,to her sisters, to her nieces and nephews.
(15:13):
She would not do that.
It wasn't for several weeks, if notmonths, before I actually got like a small
window into the real tyranny and how thiswas really impacting her and being able to
have a conversation with the daughterthat her mom and dad knew her to be.
She was a beautiful, despiteeverything that she was going through.
(15:37):
She just naturally has a lightshining from within her tyranny.
Despite everything that she went through,I think her entire life, she was just
someone who had a bright,shining light inside of her.
And I truly believe that it was her innate
nature and positivitythat got her through.
(16:01):
It was clear thatthe accident happened as a result of a
failure to maintainand repair the shelter.
We knew the city ownedand operated the airport.
We weren't certain whether any third partywas involved, but we certainly knew that
the city ultimately was responsiblefor the condition of the shelters.
(16:22):
When you have a case like thisand there's no litigation.
It's not like a malpractice case where you
can have the client signauthorizations and get medical records.
You can't get the records from the city of
Chicago or the airportunless you have a lawsuit.
There was a meritorious basis to sue the
city of Chicago, at the veryleast, and that's what we did.
(16:45):
This was something that was so avoidable,
proper maintenance of those shelters,and this wouldn't have happened.
I'm pissed.
I'm upset that something that could havebeen fixed kind of ruined part of my life.
My job was to make assignments to the
(17:08):
various members of the trial teamin terms of who would do what.
My name is Eirene Nakamura Salvi, and I'm
an associate attorney atSalvi, Schostok and Pritchard.
The first time I met Tierney, I went to
her house in Bernon Hillswith Pat senior and Tara.
She was really, really suffering.
(17:29):
I mean, it was really hard for herto even get out of bed to talk to us.
There's just something about tyrannythat you can't help but like.
Tierney is just about a year younger thanme, and we kind of listened to this
similar music, and we hadsome similar interests.
To see her and get to know her as somebodywho's more of my peer was an interesting
(17:52):
experience, and it wascertainly a motivating factor.
Just knowing that to have all of that
taken away from you in aninstant, it's unimaginable.
I'm Patrick Salvi, Jr.
And I'm the managing partner of the
Chicago office at Salvi,Schostok, and Pritchard.
My role on the trial team was to work with
(18:14):
the rest of the team members in ourstrategy leading into the trial.
I met Tierney abouttwo years after she was injured.
I went to her home.
I was really in awe of her ability to
converse with us, have a smile on her facethrough the adversity she was facing, and
(18:40):
to really be able to focuson the task at hand.
Tierney was incredibly strong, and I
learned that really, withinmoments of meeting her.
We were really round tabling, kind of whatthe next steps would be and getting all of
the information about Tierney's continuingtreatment because she had so many
(19:02):
different doctors and all of these issuesthat were going on, and really just kind
of gearing up to do all the research andget her ducks, all her ducks in a row, and
to have the cityeventually admit liability.
We deposed virtually every person
that could have anything whatsoever to dowith that part of the terminal, the bus
(19:24):
shelters, the maintainingof the bus shelters.
We took dozens and dozens of depositions
of employees of the city of Chicago,worked at the airport, and basically
discovered that no one was responsible forchecking these bus shelters.
Everyone else thought some otherdepartment or person would do it.
(19:46):
There clearly was no routine designated
individual to do inspections andmaintenance on these shelters.
In essence, I think their plan was when
something breaks or falls,then you take care of it.
At the end of the day, the city was leftwith the decision of, hey, we throw up our
hands and we are responsible,we accept liability.
(20:09):
But they didn't do it until webrought them to their knees.
The city of Chicago didn't admit
negligence until maybesix months before trial.
It was a lot of work that went into this.
They fought really hard against admission
of negligence, obviously, because theyknew that this was a significant case with
(20:30):
significant injuries andexposure for the city.
It was actually in the defendant'sbest interest to admit liability.
People, jurors and laypeople think,well, you want people to admit liability.
That makes for an easier trial, and then
you don't have to worry abouta not guilty yes and no.
The disadvantage to the defendant'sadmitted liability, though, is then you
(20:53):
don't get to go intoif it was egregious conduct, or even like
above and beyond which, in this case, wehad to prove conscious disregard for the
safety of others because it wasagainst the city of Chicago.
We had our goals in mindset as to what thecase was worth, and we just didn't really
think that the city would comeclose enough for it to take care of
(21:18):
tyranny or to fully compensate herfor what they took away from her.
I didn't really think the case was goingto settle because
I just think we were on differentwavelengths in terms of the value of the
case, what the appropriatecompensation should be.
Their best settlement offer was in the $30to $35 million range
(21:42):
and never really indicated awillingness to go much above that.
It became pretty evident that the twosides had just very different value
propositions as to what aninjury like this was worth.
I thought that their initial offers were
low, especially once ourquality of life report came out.
The expert had said, attorney willneed this for the rest of her life.
(22:06):
It wasn't enough.
We're telling them, turn this away becausewe feel that we're going to be able to get
more from a jury and that the caseis worth more than they're offering.
The city was insuredwith a $500 million dollar liability
policy, so it wasn't a situationwhere, like in a police shooting.
(22:28):
They have to go tothe city council and get approval and say,
we'd like you to authorize apayment of x amount of dollars.
This was insurance money, so it was
another reason why we really feltit was a very good case to try.
There really isn't an amount of money that
any human being would acceptto have tyranny's existence.
(22:52):
The compensatory damages in a caselike this ought to be extraordinary.
The team was talking about potentially
asking for as much as$100 million from a jury.
I asked the question, whywouldn't we ask for $200 million?
(23:13):
In our next episode, Tierney'Beatings
attorneys prepare for trial and maketheir case against the city of Chicago.
But will their arguments be enough to
convince a jury to award hera record breaking verdict?
Listen in to see if the trial team makes
the right decision in turning down amulti million dollar settlement offer.
When you turn down a settlement, you do
not know until you get a verdictif you made the right decision.
(23:37):
Special thanks to Tierney Dardenfor allowing us to share her story.
You can find more episodes of beating
Goliath on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,or wherever you get your podcasts.
To learn more about this casein our firm, head to www.
salvilaw.com podcast.
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