Sami Barrak
Crew Member Assaulted Becomes Quadriplegic
SeaEscape M/V Island Adventure - November 28, 2007
On November 28, a jury in Miami awarded a former waiter aboard a cruise ship US$102.7 million. The defendant is the owner of Sierra Shopping Center, Report Investment Corporation.
Sami Barrack and a friend visited Tootsie's Cabaret in the Sierra Shopping Center in Miami, on the cruise ship waiter's day off. After their visit they left and went to the car, which was parked in the shopping mall parking lot.
Barrack's friend remembered he had left a pack of cigarettes in the nightclub, and left Barrack to retrieve them.
While alone in the parking lot, Barrack came under attack from an armed robber and was shot with a firearm in the neck.
The incident lef Barrack disabled as a quadriplegic, breathing for the rest of his life on a ventilator.
He can breathe only with the assistance of a ventilator and is now back home in Tunisia.
Report Investment Corporation at trial, Sami Barrak v. Report Investment Corp, case number 02-26271 CA, before judge Kevin Emas admitted they provided no security for the parking lot and admitted they had never spent one dollar on security or safety. There had been a reported 26 violent crimes on the same property during the seven years prior to Mr. Barrak’s incident.
Barracks legal team, which included attorney Michael A. Haggard said the property owner was responsible for the safety of the parking lot.
A Miami jury agreed. It ordered Report Investment Corporation to pay Barrak $1.4 million for past medical expenses, $164,000 for past lost earnings, $28 million for future medical expenses, $650,000 for lost earning ability, $2.5 million for past pain and suffering and a $70 million for future pain and suffering for a total:of $102.7 million.
The Sierra Shopping Mall site that had five stores including Tootsie's Cabaret were located in Miami Gardens ,which was demolished to make way for a Lowe's home improvement store. Tootie's Cabaret sold for $25 million in the buy out deal.
In March 2007, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sued Report Investment and a Pennsylvania company Black Box Corp. in U.S. District Court in Miami for not reimbursing the federal government for cleaning up the old Milgo Electronics Corp. site at 3600 76th Street in Miami.
Beginning in 1966, the Milgo factory handled electroplating, chemical rinsing and spray-coating for the production of electronic parts. The site has been owned by Report Investment since the factory opened.
Three years after the factory closed in 1984, an EPA investigation found deposits of chromium and lead in the groundwater at the building site. The EPA concluded those metals were seeping into the Biscayne Bay aquifer and affecting drinking water.
The EPA alleged the two defendants did not reimburse its Hazardous Substance Superfund for $533,000 in cleanup expenses they had agreed to pay in 1992.
Sami Barrak
Event Date: July 31, 2002
Verdict Date: November 28, 2007
Bruise: Robbery / Assault
Age:Unknown
Bruise Location: Miami
Hometown: Tunisia
Cruise Line: SeaEscape
Ship: M/V Island Adventure
Details:
