Council likely to OK $1M settlement

The Honolulu City Council is expected to approve a $1 million settlement payment Wednesday to a couple whose toddler son fell and suffered severe and permanent injuries during an Easter egg hunt at a city park eight years ago.

The Council Executive Matters and Legal Affairs Committee, which comprises all nine Council members, gave preliminary approval last week to the 2010 civil case with a 5-0 vote. Four Council members were excused from the meeting and did not vote on the matter.

According to court filings, the boy was 2 years old when he attended a 2008 Easter egg hunt at Kaimuki Community Park. The park has two flat surface areas, at different levels, separated by a retaining wall that’s more than 4 feet high.

During the event the boy, his mother and grandmother were among a crowd of people told to move toward a single set of narrow steps leading to the lower level.

But the boy, who had been holding his grandmother’s hand, became separated from his family as the crowd approached the steps, and he “either stumbled or was pushed off of the wall to the level below,” court documents said. The boy hit his head on either a stone wall and/or a concrete sidewalk at the base of the wall, according to documents.

The boy sustained “severe and permanent injuries” including, but not limited to, blunt head trauma, brain damage and significant psychological injuries, court documents said. He continues to receive medical and therapeutic treatment for those injuries, court documents said.

The city failed to take responsible action to prevent the incident or adequately warn against an unreasonable risk of harm created by a high retaining wall with no fall protections, said Michael Cruise, an attorney for the family in the case, Reiny v. City and County of Honolulu. There also should have been better crowd control, Cruise said.