$4.4 Million Dram Shop Settlement for Boy Left with Brain Injury and Partial Paralysis After Wayne Drunk-Driving Crash

On the evening of March 23, 2017, nine-year-old Matthew Polifonte was riding in the back of his family's Toyota Sienna in Wayne, New Jersey, headed to a lacrosse practice. At the intersection of Ratzer Road and Alps Road, a Mercedes GLK 350 driven by Gina D'Amario-Aubin slammed into the rear of the minivan with enough force to push it into three other vehicles. Matthew was the only one of the six children in the car who was critically hurt.

Blood tests confirmed D'Amario-Aubin had been drinking before the crash. She was initially charged with DWI, reckless driving, and DWI through a school zone; those charges were later upgraded to two counts of assault by auto. Matthew lost consciousness at the scene and was rushed to St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, where doctors performed a tracheostomy, placed a G-tube, and removed a portion of his skull to relieve pressure on his brain. He spent his tenth birthday in a coma.

Matthew eventually emerged from the coma but was left with catastrophic permanent injuries: a traumatic brain injury and partial paralysis of his left arm and left leg. After four months in the hospital, including a long stay at Children's Specialized Hospital, he was discharged in August 2017 to a community celebration that turned out hundreds of neighbors. He wore a protective helmet because of the skull surgery.

Christopher DiGirolamo of Maggiano, DiGirolamo and Lizzi took on the family's case. After settlements were reached with D'Amario-Aubin, DiGirolamo pursued the bar that had served her under New Jersey's Dram Shop Act. That bar settled its piece of the Passaic County litigation for $950,000 in summer 2020, during a conference before Passaic County Assignment Judge Thomas Brogan.

The combined recovery, including all defendants, totaled $4.4 million. The New Jersey Law Journal reported the result in August 2020, and the case ranked No. 13 on the list of that year's top personal injury verdicts and settlements in New Jersey.