Wheelchair-User Awarded $4 Million in United Lawsuit

A Florida woman was awarded nearly $4 million in a lawsuit against United Airlines.

Erica Fulton uses a wheelchair and was traveling on a United Airlines flight to celebrate her son’s 30th birthday.

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Fulton is a wheelchair user, and while boarding her flight, a flight attendant was attempting to help her to her seat, but dropped Fulton and injured her shoulder.

Immediately, Fulton reported the incident to United Airlines, but the airlines’ response was poor.

"Within 30 minutes of being dropped, she's there telling United what happened," attorney Sean Roberts said. "They act like it never happened."

Roberts reported that United claimed in court that they heard of the incident six weeks later, even though an internal call log shows that Fulton reported it immediately. United Airlines, according to Roberts, didn’t even investigate the incident.

"That was probably what set this thing along the path of a multi-million-dollar verdict, when it should've been much lower," Roberts said.

United Airlines emailed a statement to ABC13 that read: "Our goal is to provide all of our customers with a safe and comfortable travel experience. We disagree with the court's ruling and will continue to defend ourselves."

Roberts provided insight into why Fulton ultimately won the suit: "The way United painted their first-class passenger, as a malingerer and a liar, I'm not surprised with how the jury reacted to that.”