$1.25M
settlement reached in boy’s death Seven year old was hit by bus at Wyoming
County camp
Scranton Times - 9/26/00
A $1.25 million settlement approved Monday by Lackawanna County Judge Trish
Corbett ended a lawsuit stemming from the 1996 death of a 7-year-old boy who was
run over by a bus at a Wyoming County camp.
More than $800,000 will go to the mother, Denise Gonzalez, and two sisters of
Joseph Malik Daniels, Brooklyn, NY, who suffered massive head injuries when one
of the bus’s tires rolled over him.
The rest will go to the law firm of Munley, Munley & Cartwright, PC, who was
retained as trial counsel. The case was referred to them by a New York City law
firm engaged by the boy’s family.
The money came from two insurance companies that each agreed to pay $625,000.
They were:
Travelers Property Casualty, which represented First Reform Episcopal
Church of New York City. The church had rented Camp Lackawanna from the
Lackawanna Presbytery so New York City youngsters could spend a week enjoying
the outdoors in a religious setting.
Pacific Employers, which represented the
driver of the bus and Suburban Transit Co. of New Brunswick, NJ, and Coach USA
Inc., Houston, which rented the vehicle to the church.
The accident happened
August 25, 1996. The suit says two buses rented by the church arrived at Camp
Lackawanna several hours late. The first, which carried Joseph, arrived around
7:30 p.m. The children were taken into a lodge to wait for the other.
The second bus arrived more than an hour later. The lawsuit says it pulled up in
the rear of the lodge. T he driver was told to take th bus around to the front,
the suit says While he was making the turn, the suit said, a large number of
kids, including Joseph, ran to the side of the vehicle, and the victim was hit.
Much of the delay came as lawyers for the boy’s family and the other
defendants tried to bring the Presbytery, which owns t he camp, into the suit.
President Judge James Walsh rejected their attempts, pointing out that the
agreement between the owner and the New York church specifically stated the
church would supervise the children.
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