Posted: Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The mother of a West Seneca man left a paraplegic after he jumped out a second-story window at a Buffalo treatment center has accepted a $2.75 million insurance settlement, his lawyers said Tuesday.

Michael J. Braun, who suffered from bipolar disorder, was a resident of the 24-bed three-story Visions Place, a mental health and substance abuse residential program on Sycamore Street, beginning in February 2005.  At about 3:15 p.m. June 27, 2005, he opened a window of his second-floor room and jumped out in an apparent suicide attempt that left him a paraplegic, according to attorney Donald P Chiari.

Chiari said insurance carriers for the treatment center and its parent company, Cazenovia Recovery Systems, agreed to the settlement, also accepted by Braun's mother, Joan.

The money will finance a trust fund that will cover the care needs of Braun, 48, for the rest of his life. The settlement came after eight days of testimony at a negligence trial before State Supreme Court Justice Diane Y Devlin and a Buffalo jury.

The settlement offer came after Braun's attorneys pointed out that the state recommended that Visions Place's second-and-third-floor windows be secured so they could not be opened more than eight inches, Chiari said.