Armored car service petitions federal court to hear vehicle injury case

Attorneys for an armored car company being sued by a Bucks County man over

allegations that he sustained serious injuries after being involved in a vehicle accident with the defendants are seeking to transfer the litigation from state to federal court.

Attorney Charles M. Adams, of the firm Langsam, Stevens, Silver & Hollaender, filed a removal notice with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on April 8 seeking to transfer the lawsuit out of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas because there is diversity in citizenship.

According to the record, Langhorne, Pa. lawyer Michael L. Saile filed suit in mid-March in state court on behalf of Bristol, Pa. resident Vincent J. Accardi over claims that his client sustained a host of serious physical injuries after his vehicle was struck by a vehicle owned by Maryland-based Dunbar Armored Inc. on March 31, 2011.

The defendant’s vehicle was being driven by employee Marcus T. Cosby, who resides in Hainesport, N.J.

Cosby and his passenger, fellow Dunbar employee Antoine Edwards, are both named as codefendants in the litigation.

Accardi claims that as a result of the accident, he sustained back injuries requiring surgery, as well as an inability to walk, loss of balance, dizziness, headaches, inability to eat, and a host of bone fractures and other ailments.

The plaintiff has also suffered from depression, panic attacks, anxiety, fevers, leukocytosis, high white blood cell count, vertebral problems and other injuries that required multiple operations.

Accardi also allegedly contracted the infection Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, more commonly known as MRSA, during surgery.

The plaintiff had to move in with his brother and sister-in-law for four months upon discharge from the hospital, and he was forced to remodel his home in order to accommodate the physical limitations from his injuries, the complaint states.

“As a direct and proximate result of the negligence and/or carelessness of Defendants … Plaintiff has further undergone and endured significant and serious physical pain, suffering, mental anguish and emotional pain, and suffered severe bodily injuries … and endured extensive hospitalization and medical treatment which is currently ongoing,” the lawsuit reads.

Accardi also has a Medicare lien and a healthcare insurance lien placed against any recovery to which he may be entitled to compensate him for the severe injuries, the suit states.

The accident, according to the complaint, occurred on Route 13 in Bristol Township, Bucks County, and was the result of the Dunbar employees failing to keep a safe and clear distance from other vehicles on the roadway, the plaintiff alleges in his civil action.

The road surface was apparently wet during the time of the accident.

Aside from seeking to have the case removed from the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas to the U.S. District Court, the defendants’ attorneys wrote in their filing that that Edwards, the vehicle passenger, was fraudulently joined to the lawsuit.

Edwards, who was riding in the back seat of the armored vehicle, did not influence Cosby’s “operation of Dunbar’s vehicle” at the time of the accident, the defense attorneys wrote, despite the fact that Accardi claims that Edwards’ inactions or inactions “somehow caused Dunbar’s vehicle to strike Plaintiff’s vehicle,” the removal notice states.

To prove negligence on the part of Edwards, the defense lawyers wrote, the plaintiff would have to establish that Edwards owed him a duty of care, and under state law, a passenger who does not own the host vehicle “owes no duty to protect third-persons or other passengers from the negligent acts of the vehicle’s owner or driver.”

“In addition, as a passenger, Defendant Edwards was under no legal duty to inspect Dunbar’s vehicle,” the removal petition reads. “Plaintiff cannot establish a cause of action against Defendant Edwards and there is no reasonable basis in fact or colorable ground which supports Plaintiff’s claims against Edwards.”

Accardi is seeking more than $50,000 in damages against each of the defendants.

 

The state case ID number is 130301907 and the federal case number is 2:13-cv-01828-JP.