Settlement for oven-tipping accident totals $2.1 million
By Corina Curry, for the Rockford Register Star
ROCKFORD — A $425,000
settlement announced Monday brings
the total amount that a Rockford
girl will receive for injuries
sustained in a 1997 oven-tipping
accident to just over $2.1
million.
Attorneys for the Rockford
Housing Authority, which managed
the Concord Commons apartment
where the accident took place, and
the child's legal defense team
agreed to settle the case late
Sunday night. Jury selection was
set to begin Monday morning.
The settlement ends a four-year
battle in which four entities
agreed or were ordered to pay
damages to the child and her
family. In February,
Delaware-based stove manufacturer
White Consolidated Industries
agreed to pay $675,000. The
American Gas Association also was
ordered to pay $25,000. Earlier
this month, Rockford Housing
Development Corp., the group that
owns the Concord Commons housing
project, agreed to pay $1 million.
Unique Russey was 2 years old
when she opened the oven door in
her mother's Concord Commons
apartment kitchen and climbed onto
it. The range tipped over,
spilling hot chicken grease onto
Russey and causing second and
third-degree burns. Now 9, Russey
has potentially permanent injuries
and scarring.
In 2000, attorneys for Russey
and her mother, Thalassa Shipp,
sued the manufacturing company and
housing organizations. They argued
that all of the parties created an
unsafe environment and that
anti-tip brackets that came with
the oven should have been
installed but were not.
“Ultimately, I think it was
that pressure of knowing that we
were going to go forward that
resulted in the settlement,” said
Larry Morrissey, one of Shipp's
attorneys.
“We are pleased that this case
has come to an end, and we hope
that no child and no family will
ever have to go through this type
of needless tragedy again,” Shipp
said in a written statement.
“We're glad it's come to a
satisfactory conclusion,” said RHA
Deputy Director Steve Anderson.
Anderson said all ovens in RHA
property kitchens, including the
216 apartments at Concord Commons,
now have some type of security
device to prevent tipping.
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