A New York City building owner is attempting to avoid paying a $35 million verdict to a former JPMorgan banker who sustained permanent brain damage from a shattering glass door, according to recent court filings. Lawyers for 271 Madison Co. assert that nine months of new video surveillance of former banking analyst Meghan Brown show her claims of incapacitation to be fraudulent.
"Seldom is a farce of the magnitude orchestrated by [Brown] here captured on video and in court documents," wrote Christopher Theobalt, an attorney for 271 Madison Co., arguing that the $35.2 million verdict should be overturned.
Brown's attorney, Tom Moore, dismissed the move as "utter desperation." He stated, "Hope springs eternal. But for the defendants, those hopes are going to be dashed rather soon."
In March 2024, a jury found the owners of 271 Madison Ave. liable for the 2015 incident, where a 7½-foot-tall lobby door allegedly exploded as Brown, then 27, walked through it. Brown, who now operates a gelato business in Naples, Florida, testified that the injuries led to her termination from her position as a high-level analyst and impaired her ability to perform daily tasks.
During the three-week trial in Manhattan Supreme Court, Brown testified, "Well, one of the biggest problems I have with my brain is that I can’t trust it." Jurors unanimously ruled in her favor, determining that the building owner's negligence was a substantial factor in causing her injuries.
The building owners have appealed the verdict and hired private investigators to monitor Brown in Florida. Surveillance footage reportedly shows Brown engaged in activities such as dodging traffic, working 10-hour shifts at her gelato shop, texting while operating a three-wheeled bike without a helmet, and grocery shopping—actions that the filing claims are inconsistent with her trial testimony of incapacitation.
According to the filing, investigators observed Brown working in her business stockroom at night under harsh fluorescent lighting, which contradicts her courtroom testimony that such lighting caused her pain and required her to take naps. The filing also alleges that Brown was seen running her gelato shop independently, including prepping and working a golf-course event solo and pushing a gelato cart into a van afterward. During the trial, Brown had stated she had a "team of underlings at her disposal to perform virtually every business task."
"This evidence should lay to rest the fable that plaintiff is an uninvolved cog in a "part-time gelato business, or, as she belittled it, a 'lemonade stand,'" the motion reads. "If this is her fate, she has not gotten the memo."
However, Brown's lawyer countered that it was "open and obvious" during the trial that some of her afflictions, such as needing an aide or a helmet when outside, were not constant. He noted that Brown walked to court daily without assistance, in full view of the jury. Moore stated, "This is totally without foundation in reality."
Brown's legal team also claims the building's lawyers alleged inconsistencies in Brown's testimony regarding her termination from JPMorgan. While Brown testified that her firing was due to performance issues stemming from her brain injuries, the building's attorneys cited court documents from a separate federal arbitration case where Brown swore under oath that her termination was retaliation for a wage dispute. The motion argues that providing conflicting accounts under oath constitutes perjury.
Moore denied this inconsistency, asserting that the firing was over a "policy dispute" and that "not one penny" of the jury award was for loss of future earnings. He described Brown's situation as, "This is a life shattered, and this [is] a life that will never be put back together as it was prior to 2015."