Imagine going to Li Chee to buy a late night fried chicken and to end up losing your leg right at the chicken joint because of some hard talk.
That's what happened to Belize City resident Francis Gill: he lost right leg from the knee down after he was run over by 35 year-old Devon Jones in September of 2014.
As we had reported, Gill and Jones had some words, and Jones jumped into his Chevy Trail Blazer and people thought that was the end of disagreement.
But, without any warning, Jones lurched unto the sidewalk towards Gill, and slammed him into the wall and pinned his leg there. He had to be rushed to the KHMH, and a few days later, the doctors had no choice but to amputate Gill's leg from the knee down in order to save his life.
Jones has since been awaiting trial on the criminal charges of maim and aggravated assault. But, although he has yet to his day in the Supreme Court, Gill didn't wait around for a criminal court to establish guilt against Jones. He took out civil lawsuit against Jones, and on Friday won a judgment in default against Jones, who did not put up a defense.
On Friday, Justice Shona Griffith ordered Jones to pay Gill compensation for his loss. That a major vindication for a man who's life completely changed after that accident from being perfectly healthy, to being disabled for the rest of his life.
We spoke with Gill's attorney, after the hearing about the outcome of the case:
Kareem Musa, Attorney for Francis Gill
"It was a claim for personal injuries from an incident which occurred in August of 2014, almost two year ago whereby Mr. Devon Jones drove his motor vehicle onto the sidewalk in front of Key Li Restaurant on Freetown Road and it actually hit Mr. Francis Gill who was in front of the restaurant. The motor vehicle pinned him against the wall and crushing his right leg and left it in a mangle state which then had to be amputated. So, it's actually a case for negligence against Mr. Devon Jones for that incident that occurred. The assessment was conducted today and of course the learned trial judge did an excellent job in assessing the damage on the various heads of damage in the instance of the general damages, she awarded $100,000. For the specific damages in terms of his future loss of earnings there was a figure of $108,000 and for replacement prosthetic leg, so to speak, she awarded $15,000. That's the overall sum and of course she considered all the different factors especially the fact that he was a working man at the time and he lost his job as a result of losing his right leg. So all those things have to be considered including what the retirement age is. This is a young man who was 44 years old and the retirement age is 60. So he did have many years left to work."
Daniel Ortiz
"While we are looking at that figure which is $200 plus thousand dollars, persons outside might think that this gentlemen won the jackpot. But the reality is that it's one private citizen suing a private citizen and he might not be able to collect that monies."
Kareem Musa, Attorney for Francis Gill
"We will certainly employ all our best efforts to recover that sum and to enforce the judgement against not only Mr. Jones, but his insurance company. He did have 3rd party liability I believe with RF&G. So we will take all necessary means to try and recover these sums for Mr. Gill."
Jones also has to pay Gill's court costs to bring this civil suit.
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