Maruf Hossain’s life changed forever when he lost five toes in a gruesome accident on a New York subway platform in Parkchester in June 2017. On Monday, a jury awarded Hossain close to $23 million for the accident, People reports.
Hossain, then a 24-year-old bicycle delivery worker from Bangladesh, alleges he tripped over an “uneven” and “very narrow” New York City subway platform, fell onto the tracks and was hit by a train. He filed a complaint against the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), the City of New York, the New York City Transit Authority and the train controller.
According to court documents, Hossain sustained “injuries to the neck, back, head, legs, arms, hands, internal and external injuries to the whole body, lower and upper limbs.” Every toe had to be amputated from Hossain’s “mangled” left foot, according to a medical report filed to the court.
First responders initially stated that Hossain jumped in front of the train, which became the Transit Authority’s defense in court. Nick Liakas, Hossain’s lawyer, told the New York Post that the Transit Authority also tried to pressure Hossain to settle for only $100,000.
Hossain vehemently denied allegations of suicide. Three days after the accident, he told a psychiatrist, “I am making $1,000 a week. I am happy. Planning to get married next year.”
“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, who is now a U.S. citizen, wrote in a statement to the Post. Liakas said Hossain’s win is a “warning to powerful corporations” that the “days of dodging responsibility” are over, he wrote to People.
In a response for comment, an MTA spokesperson wrote to People that the agency is “reviewing the verdict while assessing all legal options.”
The MTA has had to cough up many millions in the last few years. In 2019, the Transit Authority was made to pay over $100 million in the largest known settlement for personal injury and non-medical malpractice in the history of New York when a man was paralyzed after construction workers dropped a railroad tie on him.
