The $227 Million Building Collapse Settlement and Mariya Plekan's $95.6 Million Award

On the morning of June 5, 2013, a four-story building was being torn down at 22nd and Market Streets in Center City Philadelphia, next to a one-story Salvation Army thrift store that was open for business. The demolition crew left a tall brick wall standing without bracing. It gave way and fell onto the crowded store, burying shoppers and workers under tons of debris. Six people were killed at the scene, a seventh died later, and roughly a dozen others were hurt.

Mariya Plekan, then 52, a Ukrainian immigrant and a regular at the store, was among those trapped. Rescuers did not reach her for about 13 hours. Her injuries were among the worst any survivor faced. Surgeons had to remove the lower half of her body at the hips. She lived through kidney failure and lung damage, came through roughly 30 operations, and spent months on a respirator that left her unable to speak. She would need round-the-clock medical care for the rest of her life.

The civil case went to trial in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court and ran 17 weeks. Lawyers for the injured and the families of the dead argued that the property owner, New York real estate investor Richard Basciano, his company STB Investments, and the Salvation Army shared the blame for letting an unsafe demolition proceed alongside an occupied store. Andrew J. Stern of Kline & Specter represented Plekan and told the jury her future medical costs alone could reach $50 million.

In February 2017, before the jury returned a verdict, the defendants agreed to resolve every claim for a combined $227 million. That figure was reported as the largest personal injury settlement in Pennsylvania court history. It was a single fund meant to cover all 19 people killed or injured in the collapse.

Because one pool of money had to be split among many claimants, the parties asked arbitrator Jerry P. Roscoe to decide each person's share. In May 2017, Roscoe assigned $95.6 million to Plekan, by far the largest individual amount. Stern described it as the highest recovery ever for an injured person in the state.

The award was not later reduced, remitted, or capped. The defendants had committed to paying the full $227 million before the allocation, so Plekan's $95.6 million share stood as Roscoe set it.