Press

The Courier-Post on Oct. 17, 2019, written by im Walsh. Click here to read it on The Courier-Post site.

WOODBURY – The Wenonah Fire Department has agreed to a $4.5 million settlement of a lawsuit brought by a woman critically injured when her car was struck by a volunteer who ran a red light while responding to a blaze.

Melinda Baker of Mantua also will receive an additional $100,000 from the firefighter, Richard J. Campbell, court records say.

And a Woodbury judge on Friday scaled back a fee request from Baker’s attorneys, saying settlement funds “would no doubt be more beneficial to the seriously injured client.”

In his ruling, Superior Court Judge Samuel Ragonese noted Baker’s “catastrophic and permanent injuries” and her “likely need for treatment and care into the future.”

Baker, then 56, suffered more than 14 fractures when Campbell’s Ford Focus smashed into the driver’s side of her compact car, a Dodge Neon, in January 2018, according to a statement from the woman’s law firm, Fritz & Bianculli of Turnersville.

Campbell, whose car was equipped with flashing blue lights, was responding to a fire call when he ran a red light at Mantua Pike and Parkville Station Road, according to Baker’s lawsuit, which includes a photograph of her mangled vehicle.

Baker, previously involved in missionary work in Malaysia, “now uses a wheelchair and a chair lift to move inside her home,” the law firm’s statement noted.

“This settlement agreement gives Melinda Baker a financial safety net that she desperately needed,” said attorney Brian Fritz.

An attorney representing the fire company and Campbell could not be reached for immediate comment.

Insurers will make payments on behalf of the fire company and Campbell, a court filing notes.

In his ruling Friday, Ragonese denied the law firm’s request for an additional fee of $560,000, representing 35 percent of the settlement amount above $3 million.

He allowed the lawyers to take 20 percent of that amount, or $320,000.

The judge’s decision included an assumption that Fritz & Bianculli would receive an initial payment of about $875,000, based on New Jersey court rules for contingency fees.

Ragonese acknowledged Baker had supported her attorneys’ request for an additional payment. He also recognized the law firm had devoted thousands of hours to the lawsuit and to a mediation session that produced the settlement.

But the judge asserted that determining the liability of Campbell and his fire company “was not an especially difficult objective.”

Ragonese noted the firefighter “clearly went through a red light and though he was responding to a fire call, there is no protection (from) the duty imposed on all drivers to exercise due care.”

Jim Walsh is a free-range reporter who’s been roaming around South Jersey for decades. His interests include crime, the courts, economic development and being first with breaking news. Reach him at jwalsh@gannettnj.com or look for him in traffic.

Help support local journalism with a Courier-Post subscription.