Woman Awarded $35M in Strange Manhattan Door-Shattering Incident

Meghan Brown, then 27, was an analyst for JPMorgan in 2015 when, as she was leaving a physical therapy appointment in Manhattan, the glass lobby door suddenly shattered as she walked through it. The now-36-year-old was recently awarded a $35 million verdict after a three-week trial on the case, the New York Post reports. The incident left her with permanent brain damage, and she testified that she ultimately lost her job due to the resulting decline in performance, and has not been able to work in investment banking since. She was also fired from a subsequent cryptocurrency job and now runs a gelato business in Florida.

• She also said a man she was in a relationship with after the accident broke off their engagement because he said they wouldn't be able to have a "normal life" together. Other problems she described included light sensitivity, constant headaches and neck pain, depth perception and balance problems, vertigo, losing her sense of taste and smell, and problems with memory, focus, vocabulary, and executive function. She even forgot Spanish, a language she used to speak fluently, and was ultimately diagnosed with PTSD.
• A lawyer for the building said the glass shattered into many small pieces, just like it was designed to, and claimed that it would have been impossible for Brown to receive a brain injury from the way it fell. He claimed she only had a cut on her hand.

• Brown's lawyers said the building had a history of glass doors shattering, and claimed a crack in the door caused the problem. The building's lawyer denied that, and explained the strange incident this way: "This was sort of a perfect storm of events, where you had [Brown] leaning on the door, you had the gentleman [who was walking out behind her] push on the door with the corner of his cellphone. It was cold out and warm in, and the force on the glass was more than it could handle."

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