Councilman seeks $1 million for injury

While recovering from a trip-and-fall accident at a Las Vegas theatre in 1992, City Councilman Michael McDonald was involved in two automobile accidents and suffered a work-related injury within a matter of months.

McDonald, a Metro Police bicycle patrol officer, lamented that "1992 wasn't a good year" in testimony last week during a personal-injury trial in District Judge Jack Lehman's courtroom. The trial stemmed from a lawsuit that McDonald filed against the Syuffy Theatres chain.

His lawyers said McDonald is entitled to more than $1 million for an injury to his right knee that has left him with a 10 percent permanent disability, kept him from his dream of becoming a SWAT officer and likely will result in premature arthritis.

Lehman heard the trial without a jury at the request of the parties and is expected to make a decision early this week.

The lawsuit against Syuffy Theatres, where McDonald said he tripped over a broom and dust pan while exiting the movie "Hook," claims the incident on Dec. 31, 1991, was solely responsible for the disabling knee injury and the bout with depression that followed.

But Reno lawyer Kent Robison, who represents the theatre chain now known as Century Theatres, fumed in court that McDonald is blaming several unrelated incidents for the same injury.

Robison said McDonald has alleged in lawsuits over the later auto accidents and in a State Industrial Insurance System action that each later incident also was completely responsible for the injury and the loss of quality of life.

McDonald, 33, shrugged on the witness stand Friday, saying that he left the legal decisions about his claims to his lawyers.

"It's not proper to collect in a lawsuit and then ask for the same thing from other cases," Robison said.

Lehman said that since McDonald has not collected any compensation in any of the cases, the issue of multiple claims for the same injuries "becomes a question of credibility."

Robison noted during closing arguments that doctors concluded McDonald -- who required arthroscopic surgery -- could have completely recovered from the theatre injury.

The lawyer said that Syuffy was willing to compensate McDonald for the injuries from the fall at the theatre, but that the truly debilitating injuries were the result of the later accidents necessitating additional surgery in mid-1992.

"We're here to pay our dues, but not for the full ride," Robison said. "There were (ligament) tears throughout his knee that we didn't cause."

McDonald's lawyer, Anthony Sgro, conceded that the later incidents likely played some role but contended that the Syuffy accident was "the life-changing, life-altering event."

McDonald explained to the judge that the knee never completely healed after the first incident and that the injury was aggravated by accidents in March and July 1992, in addition to a June 1992 injury that occurred when he vaulted a brick wall during the pursuit of a police suspect.

He added that he also slipped and fell on a rain-slickened sidewalk outside the Barbary Coast hotel-casino a few weeks after the Syuffy incident, smacking his injured knee.

McDonald said that not only did his injured knee keep him from becoming a SWAT officer, it also prevented him from engaging in recreational activities with his friends.

He told the judge that he was "upset and depressed" after the Syuffy accident and became more so after each subsequent incident.

Sgro argued that the later incidents played no more than a 25 percent role in McDonald's permanent disability and that Syuffy should pay $856,000 for the past injuries and the future pain and suffering.

Robison questioned just how debilitating McDonald's injuries were, noting that the councilman underwent no follow-up medical care between 1992 and April 1998, shortly before the trial began.

"His life changed in a very significant way," McDonald's second lawyer, Louis Palazzo, said. "They may say he's a city councilman and he should be happy. But he didn't want to be a councilman. He wanted to be a SWAT officer."

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