When I have to CONSTANTLY SMELL urine at most of the platforms, and have to sit in UNBEARABLY HOT cars during the summer, then yes, I DO think that NYCT sits on a BIG sack of money. I mean, where’s the money going to CLEAN and REPAIR trains? Certainly NOT FOR TRANPORTATION! The money goes to NYCT Big-Wigs and Fat-Cats and the Union Reps who make sure that workers are able to retire on more money then I’ll EVER see.

I need to work to age 100 to put food on the table, and these dudes can put in a couple of 24 hour days a month before they retire, and then they can retire on HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS. Nice work, if you can get it!

The heck with TORT REFORM, what we need is an ability to cap the amount of an award that can go to attorneys, doctors and our City workers.

1) They think that NYCT has a bottomless well of money;
2) They are angry over fare hikes and the like and see big jury verdicts as a way to “get back” at NYCT.

As a lawyer for the past 19 years, I can tell you that jury verdicts, especially in personal injury cases like these, are often separated from reason by various factors, include race and religious bias, and money and class bias (poor people sticking it to upper class defendants or “The Man”). That’s why appellate courts very often reduce jury verdicts like these (and that’s another reason why you shouldn’t believe the subway lawyers posters boasting about how much they’ve won for plaintiffs – while its true that the original jury verdicts were large, the amounts their clients actually received may be far less.)