Court Reduces Award Given To Woman Run Over On Beach

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TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami) - A state appeals court has reduced a $2.6 million jury award in a case involving a Kansas woman who was run over in 2011 by a lifeguard truck on a Volusia County beach.

The 5th District Court of Appeal rejected $600,000 that the jury awarded to Erin Joynt for lost earning capacity and future medical expenses, siding with Volusia County's arguments that the woman had not adequately proven she was entitled to those damages.

The remaining $2 million of the jury award was not affected by Friday's ruling.

Joynt was severely injured in July 2011 when she was run over by a Volusia County beach-patrol truck as she sunbathed. The appeals-court ruling said she suffered skull fractures and internal injuries and had to undergo surgery to reconstruct her left ear and to have a gold weight inserted in her left eyelid to help her blink.

Joynt sued the county, and the jury awarded $2 million for past and future pain and suffering, along with $600,000 for lost earning capacity and future medical expenses.

But in a 12-page ruling Friday, a three-judge panel of the appeals court said, in part, that Joynt returned to work a year after the accident as a school reading-intervention paraeducator and intended to continue working.

The ruling, written by Judge Wendy Berger, said Joynt "failed to meet her burden" of showing lost earning capacity.

"Although she put on evidence sufficient to establish reasonable injury, Joynt failed to demonstrate any diminished ability to earn money in the future and failed to present evidence that would allow the jury to quantify the amount of an award,'' the ruling said.

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.