Wheelchair-bound woman wins lawsuit over United Airlines after injury
Published Date: 1 Feb., 2019 | Republished by LIT; 11 Feb., 2020
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A Florida woman traveling through Houston won a multi-million dollar lawsuit against United Airlines.
Erica Fulton is disabled and was boarding her flight, when she says a flight attendant, who was helping her to her seat, dropped her, and injured her shoulder.
Fulton was traveling to celebrate her son’s 30th birthday.
“Within 30 minutes of being dropped, she’s there telling United what happened,” attorney Sean Roberts said. “They act like it never happened.”
Roberts represented Fulton in court. He says United claimed they didn’t get wind of this until six weeks after the incident, even though he says their internal call logs shows Fulton reporting it immediately.
Roberts also claims the airline didn’t even investigate the incident.
“That was probably what set this thing along the path of a multi-million dollar verdict, when it should’ve been much lower,” Roberts said.
United Airlines ultimately lost in court, and Fulton was awarded nearly $4 million.
“The way United painted their first-class passenger, as a malingerer and a liar, I’m not surprised with how the jury reacted to that,” Roberts said.
ABC13 reached out to United Airlines about the incident. They responded in an emailed statement:
“Our goal is to provide all of our customers with a safe and comfortable travel experience. We disagree with the court’s ruling and will continue to defend ourselves.”
Before JONES, HIGGINSON, and OLDHAM, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM:
IT IS ORDERED that appellants’ opposed motion to strike trial exhibits 137, 140, and 146 from the record on appeal is DENIED.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that appellants’ opposed motion for new trial is CARRIED WITH THE CASE.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that appellants’ alternative opposed motion for limited remand under Fed. R. App. P. l0(e) is GRANTED.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that appellants’ opposed motion to suspend the briefing notice dated December 10, 2019 during pendency of limited remand is GRANTED.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that appellees unopposed motion to file Appendix B in support of appellee’s response under seal is GRANTED.
Today we were updating https://t.co/r0JQzpwP66
It’s a personal injury suit with $4m jury award in https://t.co/u1sNyBk8Ja‘s court. It’s on appeal at https://t.co/3AEdYLyLuY and the 3 Panel of King, Elrod and @JusticeWillett heard oral yesterday. Here’s what Elrod had to say🧐 pic.twitter.com/l2qXSz3wqq— LawsInTexas (@lawsintexasusa) February 6, 2021
Oral Argument: 19-20140 | 02/04/2021: Fulton v. Untd Airlines
NextGen Lawyer and @fedsoc member Catherine Eschbach now of @MorganLewisLaw and former clerk to https://t.co/u1sNyBk8Ja and https://t.co/tgOgch6hNI explains the Art of Bias to highlight “certain” district judges as known friends of 5th Cir. Video credit @thehba @RMFifthCircuit pic.twitter.com/6b72iWWWsC
— LawsInTexas (@lawsintexasusa) February 5, 2021