DepoofMr.Toppell-2.docx
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
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GLENNA TOPPEL and ROBERT TOPPEL, INDEX NO.:
03-CV-3042
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Plaintiffs,
(DAB)
-against-
MARRIOT INTERNATIONAL, INC., Defendants.
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10:05 a.m. January 10, 2007
100 Park Avneue
New York, New York
EXAMINATION BEFORE TRIAL of GLENNA TOPPEL and ROBERT TOPPEL, taken by DEFENDANT MARRIOT, before ALBERT M. CITTONE, a Certified Court Reporter and Notary Public of the State of New York.
CITTONE REPORTERS Certified Court Reporters Two Penn Plaza'ySuite 1500
New York, Nework 10121
(212)286-9222
2 (TIME NOTED:11:40 A.M.)
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4 ROBERT BERNARD TOPPEL, residing at
5 1112 Aron Place, North Bellmore, New
6 York 11710, sworn.
7
8 EXAMINATION BY MR. MUSURCA:
9 Q Good morning, Mr. Toppel.
10 A Good morning.
11QMy name is Jim Musurca, and I
12 represent the defendants in a lawsuit that you and
13 your wife have brought concerning an accident that
14 occurred on January 30, 2002 at a hotel in Nassau,
15 Bahamas.
16 I'll be asking you some questions
17 about the accident and the consequences of the
18 accident.And you were here during your wife's
19 deposition.You know the ground rules.
20 If you have any questions or don't
21 understand a question, just let me know.Okay?
22 A Okay.
23 QWhat is your date of birth, sir?
24 A July 25, 1932.
25 QAre you currently employed?
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2 A No. I have a small consulting
3 business.
4 Q What kind of consulting business?
5 A Well, I do three things: Management
6 consulting, pension planning, and financial
7 advising, but I sell no products.
8 QNo conflicts of interest?
9 A No products.
10 QWere you employed previously?
11A Yes.
12 QWhere were you provided?
13 A The United States Government. I
14 ended up being a Social Security district manager,
15 running offices in New York City.
16 Q How long did you work for the Social
17 Security Administration?
18 A Twenty-nine years.
19 Q When did you retire?
20 A 1987.
21 Q Do you have a business name other
22 than just your personal name?
23 A Yes, Romebrook, R-o-m-e-b-r-o-o-k,
24 Enterprises, Inc.
25 Q Did you travel to Nassau, Bahamas in
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2 January of '02?
ROBERT B. TOPPEL
3 A I did.
4 Q What was the purpose of that trip?
5 A I was going to do three days of
6 seminar work for then the INS in Nassau.
7 QDid you originate your trip to that
8 seminar in Fort Lauderdale or New York?
9 A I may have started, because I dealt
10 with INS previously, I may have started in New
11 York and finalized it when we were in Fort
12 Lauderdale.
13 Q I mean, when you traveled at the end
14 of January '02 to Nassau, Bahamas, did you travel
15 directly from Fort Lauderdale?
16 A Yes.
17 Q Do you remember when you went to Fort
18 Lauderdale that year?
19 A To Fort Lauderdale, January 1.
20 QWas that your normal —
21 A Yes, we usually go January 1 to
22 February 28.
23 Q You heard your wife's testimony.
24 Was that accurate, where you stayed
I
25 and the homes?
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1 ROBERT B. TOPPEL
2 A Yes.The correction was, it was
3 DeJong.We were scheduled, when I finished the
4 three days, we were going back to Fort Lauderdale
5 because I had the condo through February 28 of
6 '02, with DeJong.
7 Q Did you make the reservations for the
8 hotel for this trip?
9 A Well, I had a contact, Bahamas.The
10 INS assistant port director, his wife worked
11 there, Barbara Kimmel.
12 When I called her, who is going to be
13 there, to meet, I said, do you have the name of a
14 hotel.
15 And she recommended, stay at the
16 Marriott.
17 My wife made the reservation at the
18 Marriott or Kimmel.I forget which one.
19 Q How long were you intending to stay
20 in the Bahamas?
21 A Three or four nights.We might have
22 stayed the fourth night.Certainly three.
23 We came the day before I was working
24 and the next two days.It had to be three, at
25 least three, maybe the fourth.
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2 Q Did you end p leaving before your
3 intended departure?
4 A Yes.
5 Q When did you leave?
6 A The accident was the 30st. She spent
7 the 30th and the 1st, so we left the third day
8 afterwards.
. 9 Q Did you leave February 1st?
10 A Let's see. The accident was January
11 30th. We left February 1st, I believe, back to
12 Fort Lauderdale.
13 Q Had the accident not happened, you
14 would are stayed?
15 A I would done three days of seminar
16 and either left that evening or the next day. I
17 would have made the airline reservation. I just
18 don't remember which it was.
19 It would have been three days or the
20 morning of the fourth day.
21 Q Were you able to complete any of the
22 seminar?
23 A One day.
24 Q Just the day of the accident?
25
A
Right.
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Q Were you required to refund any of your fee?
A I didn't collect anything. I don't check anything until I've completed it.So I didn't get paid for three days.
MR. MUSURCA:Are you claiming damages for that?
MS. TAYLOR:I'm not sure.I have to check the Complaint.
Q As a result of this accident, did you lose any income from that seminar?
A Well, two days' worth of seminar work.
Q How much was that?
A Oh, boy.I gave them a break because I was in Fort Lauderdale.I'm going to say, ballpark figure, maybe 15 to $2,000.
Q As a result of this accident, did you lose any other income besides that?
A Well, yes.I cancelled — I divided
America by the Mississippi River.
Then I used to go to the west coast quite often, and she would come with me. I have not gone back to the west coast since the
2 accident.
3 I just turned down L.A. and Las
4Vegas, and I don't go there. It would entail two,
5 three days of seminar work and one day of travel
6 on both ends, and I didn't want to leave her
7 alone.
8 Q Can you estimate how much income you
9 claimed you've lost as a result of this accident?
10 A I really can't because, you know,
11previous seminar work, they call me for repeat
12 work or I'll initiate it with an organization I
13 think I could help. So from '02 to '07, I just
14 don't know.
15 QHad you ever been to this particular
16 hotel before?
17 A No.
18 Q Had you ever been in the area where
19 the accident happened before the accident actually
20 happened?
21 A No.
22 Q Do you recall whether you went, you
23 and your wife went up the stairs to the second
24 floor of the Sol Mare restaurant, or did you take
25 the elevator or something else?
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2 A To the best of my recollection, no
3 elevator. We just went down along hallway, which
4 ended up in this wall with a menu on it.
5 I don't recall if I got there by
6 taking an elevator.I just remember walking down
7 a long hallway.
8 Q
9 accident?
10 A
11 Q
Where had you been just before the
Probably in our room.
Is it likely, then, that you came
12 down the elevator to that floor?
13 A
14 Q
15 A
16 Q
Yes.
And you walked down a hallway? Yes.
At the end of the hallway, is that
17 where the restaurant was?
18 A
19 wall was.
20 Q
21 relationship
22 A
23 Q
24 A
25 Q
No. That's where the menu on the
Where was the restaurant in
I don't know. I never got there. You just saw the menu?
Yes.
Did you have reservations
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ROBERT B. TOPPEL
A I had a seven o'clock reservation. Q About what time did this accident
happen?
A Quarter to seven.
Q Can you describe where the menu was with relation to the stairs?
A To the stairs? Q Yes.
A Very close by, higher on the wall. I'm not that tall.I might have had to look up a little bit to see it.So it was fairly high on the wall.
As I now know, having seen what
happened, it was right close to the stairs.
Q Where were you standing when your wife fell down the stairs?
A Well, because I'm taller than she is and these two women were taller than she was, when they moved away, she stepped up.I didn't really have to step up because I was taller and I was
able to see it.
So I was to my wife's right rear.
Q Was your wife the first one in line, so to speak, looking at the menu?
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A When the two women left, she moved
Q Did the two women leave or step
A They finished viewing it and moved to
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7 the right.
8 Q Did they leave, did you notice if
9 they left?
10 A I don't know.
11 Q To the best of your knowledge, you
12 and your wife were standing there looking at the
13 menu before the accident?
14 A
15 up.
16 Q
17 A
18 Q
19 A
20 Q
There were people behind us, coming
There were other people there? Right.
Not in front of the menu board?
No.
You were behind and to the right of
:.
21 your wife?
22 A
23 Q
24 A
Yes.
Can you tell me what happened?
Well, she looked at the menu, and I
25 looked at the menu, and she took half a step to
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1 ROBERT B. TOPPEL
2 the left and fell down a flight of stairs.
3 Now, you know, in slow motion, I keep
4 reliving it.I made a lunge to grab her and
5 missed her by about 12 inches.
6 QDo you recall what kind of shoes your
7 wife had on at the time?
8 A I don't recall, but she said she wore
9 sneakers.She wears them a lot.
10 Q Do you recall whether your wife was
11 wearing her glasses at the time?
12 A I can't say.
13 Q Do you recall the lighting conditions
14 in that area?
15 A Well, because you had to get
16 relatively close to read it, I think it was, the
17 hallway was a little on the dim side.I don't
18 recall lots of lighting there.So I would say, on
19 the dim side.
20 QDid you have difficulty reading the
21 menu?
22 A I don't think I ever got to read it.
23 Q Did your wife tell you she had
24 difficulty reading it?
25 A No.We never discussed it.
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2 Q Had you ever retained anyone or hired
3 anyone to test the lighting in the area —
4 A No.
5 Q– where the accident occurred?
6 A No.
7 QHas anyone else ever told you that
8 the lighting was dim in that area?
9 A No.
10 QHas anyone ever told you anything
11about the lighting in that area?
12 A No.
13 Q Did you have someone, not hire, but
14 did you request someone to take photographs of the
15 area?
16 A Well, after it happened, I guess we
17 had come back to New York already, and I asked
18 Barbara Kimmel, would she please go to the hotel
19 and take pictures of the menu and stairs, and she
20 did that with a woman who is standing there, and
21 she also took pictures.
22 I've never seen the place of the
23 large entranceway to the restaurant, which has
24 railings.
25 QWhen you say "railing," what do you
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2 mean by "railing"?
3A On the side, if you look at the
4 picture, there were brass railings.
5 QYou mean stair rails?
6 A Yes.
7 QRails along the side of the stairs,
8 as opposed to rails along the wall?In other
9 words, when you were walking up the steps, there
10 would be a stair rail you could hold onto?
11A That's what the picture shows.I've
12 never seen it.
13 (OFF THE RECORD)(ON THE RECORD)
14 Q Showing you what's been marked
15 Defendant's Exhibit A, have you ever seen this
16 picture before?
18 Who is the woman depicted?
20 A local model?
21 Somebody with Barbara Kimmel.
22 Is this one of the picture Ms. Kimmel
23
24 A Yes.
25 Q Did she take any other pictures of
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2 the menu or the area?
3A That's the only one she sent me of
4 that scene.
5 QIs this the area where the accident
6 occurred, depicted in Defendant's Exhibit A?
7 A Yes. This is the menu (indicating).
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8 Q
9 picture.
You're pointing to the right of the
10 A Yes. This is the menu, and this must
11 be the start of the stairs (indicating).
12QOver to the left of the photo, as you
13 are looking at it?
14 A Yes.
15 Q Where was the restaurant in
16 relation
17 A I don't know. I never got to the
18 restaurant.
19 Q The restaurant could have been down
20 the stairs
21 A I assume, down the stairs and
22 somewhere off the stairs.
23 Q To the right of this picture, is
24 there the hallway —
25 A That's the hallway. You had to go
2 left.I assume the restaurant had to be down
3 those stairs.We never got there.
4 Q Down the stairs to the left of the
5 picture, as you are looking at it?
6 A Yes.
7 Q Do you know how many stairs there
8 were there?
9 A No.I never counted them. I just
10 ran down.
11 My wife was at the foot of the
12 stairs.I'm going to say six, seven, something
13 like that.I'm guessing.
14 Q Did you ever have anyone measure the
15 steps or test the steps in any way?
16 A No.Never went back there.
17 Q After the accident, obviously you
18 went to help your wife.Did she say anything to
19 you other than the pain?
20 A Well, I rushed down the stairs, and
21 she was lying there contorted, and she was in
22 pain.
23 And very rapidly, two people from the
24 hotel came, and I said, we need, you know, EMS.I
25 used the English term "EMS."They called
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2 somebody, and then EMS came relatively quickly.
3 She was in pain. She was distraught.
4 Q Did she mention where she was in
5 pain?
6 A I don't recall. I just know she
7 looked horrible.
8 QDid a security guard from the hotel
9 come up?
10 A There were two people who came: A
11 woman who was from, I'm going to say Guest
12 Services, and a security guard came, whoever.
13 They kind of hovered over me, and I was kneeling
14 over my wife until the EMS came.
15 Q When the EMS came, did they provide
16 any treatment on the scene? Did they give her a
17 neck color or anything like that?
18 A I don't recall them giving her any
19 kind of thing. The only thing I was concerned, I
20 knew I was in a third-world country, I said to the
21 EMS guy, "Where are we going?"
22 He said there were two hospitals, one
23 is worse than the other.
24 I said, "Where would you go take your
25 wife?"
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2 He said, "Doctors Hospital."
3So he took me to Doctors Hopital.
4 Q Was that a good facility, in your
5 opinion?
6 A I think it was. I stayed in the room
7 with her for two nights. The nurses were very
8 attendant. The doctors were very attendant.
9 Q How long was your wife in the
10 hospital?
11A Two nights.
12 QWould that be the 30th and 31st and
13 discharged on February 1st?
14 A The night of the 30th, night of the
15 31st, and then we went to Fort Lauderdale.
16 Q On February 1st?
17 A Yes.
18 Q Did your wife sit in the plane?
19 A Here's what happened: I knew the
20 assistant port director, and I knew we needed an
21 ambulance to get to the plane, and I said How is
22 my wife… She got a cast on her leg.
23 He said, "We have equipment when
24 somebody has to get on a plane."
25 They had a lift and put her on a lift
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2 and put her in the back of the plane and gave her
3 a special chair in the back of the plane.
4 We knew it would be a 20-minute
5 flight, so we had her go to the bathroom first.
6 She couldn't go to the bathroom on the plane.It
7 was about a 20-minute flight.
8 QSo at that time she couldn't have any
9 weight-bearing on her left ankle, right?
10 A She had a cast on the ankle and a
11 cast on the wrist.The cast went up as far as, I
12 recall, almost to the knee.
13 QDo you remember if they gave her any
14 prescription medication in the hospital?
15 A I'm saying yes because she was
16 complaining after the surgery, but I can't tell
17 you what it was.
18 Q Do you remember if they gave her any
19 injections of anything?
20 A No.
21 Q Then, you heard your wife's testimony
22 about the treatment and the time you were in Fort
23 Lauderdale.
24 To the best of your recollection, is
25 that substantially correct?
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2 A Yes.
3 She was pretty much in the cast.
4When I had to take her to Dr. Schiuma, had to put
5 her in a wheelchair and get one of these taxi
6 Ambulettes, and she was in the wheelchair at that
7 time. We brought in a commode.
8 For whatever it's worthy, had to do
9 whatever, cooking, whatever, and she stayed in the
10 bed, pretty much.
11We couldn't go home February 28. So
12 I fortunately got Dr. Wong's apartment for March,
13 and we had to move across the hallway to Dr.
14 Wong's apartment, and we stayed there until March
1520.
16 Q How much extra did that cost you, do
17 you remember?
18 A I think Dr. Wong charged me, for the
19 month, 1,600.
20 QDid you have any other expenses there
21 as a result of the accident?
22 A In the second condo?
23 Q In Fort Lauderdale in general.
24 A Going to Dr. Schiuma, we had used a
25 taxi or Ambulette taxi. I brought in meals.
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4 of?
No, I don't think so.
Q Were all the medical bills taken care
5 A Well, I have fairly good coverage.
6 In Nassau, for example, we're both on
7 Medicare, Medicare doesn't cover outside the
8 United States.My supplementary policy covered, I
9 think, about 70 percent of the bill.So I was
10responsible for 30 percent.
11Q Do you remember about how much that
12 was?
13 A I'm going to say between 2,000 and
14 2,700.I'm not exactly sure.
15 Q How has your relationship with your
16wife changed as a result of this accident?
17 A I think I'm the same except for my
18fright.
19 Q That has nothing to do with the
20 accident?
21 A Right, nothing to do with the
22 accident.
23 She has lost a lot of confidence.
24 She doesn't go anywhere alone.
25 A good example is, the day I went to
2 work, the first day of my seminar, she went into
3 town, the straw market, Bay Street alone.She
4 doesn't go anywhere alone.
5 I live in cul-de-sac with concrete
6 sidewalks.She doesn't go out alone.She is
7 afraid of falling.She uses the cane all the
8 time.We never let her go anywhere.
9 She hasn't driven one mile since the
10accident.She doesn't type.She used to help me.
11Even her cooking, I watch the way she
12lifts pots and drops things.
13Her confidence level is down.
14She'll never say I'm going to the
15mall.She doesn't go anywhere alone.I'll drive
16her, a friend will drive her.
17She won't get on a bus alone.
18I just feel she's not the kind of
19confident person she was before.
20 QHas it affected your relationship in
21any other manner?
22A Not really.If you're talking about
23an intimate relationship?
24 Q Yes.This particular claim includes
25that.
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2 A Well, I would say yes. It has
3 affected it that way. I'm very conscious of her
4 left side.
5 Q Has it affected your sexual
6 relationship?
7 A To some minor degree.
8 Q How has it affected it?
9 A We don't have a relationship the same
10 way.
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Q In what way is it different? A Less.
Q Is it significantly less? You said
14 before it was in a minor way.
15 A Well, we're not kids anymore. It's
16 not like we're 25.
17 Everything is diminished. I won't
18 say how much. Also I'm more conscious of her lack
19 of energy in that. She's very, very subdued in
20 that area.
21 Q Does she complain about pain in her
22 left wrist and left ankle?
23 A Well, she's not a complainer, but I
24 know when she's not doing well.
t,
25 She'll sit down and elevate the left
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{2 leg on the couch, or sofa. I've sat in the
3 kitchen and I've seen her, a pot's full of water,
4 she'll grab with two hands, and I'll go over a
5 say, I'll do it.
6 She was a great cook. She doesn't do
7 the great cooking like she used to, which is
8 probably an advantage for me: I don't put on
9 weight.
10 QHave you spent any money on
11 housecleaning, services at home?
12 A Yes. She doesn't do any cleaning.
13 She doesn't do bathrooms, kitchen floors. We have
14 a woman that comes in.
15 Q Did she do this before the accident?
16 A Yes. She was very independent. Very
17 rarely did she bring in someone to do it. She was
18 a very independent person.
19 QDo you pay someone now to do those
20 things?
21 A Yes.
22 Q How much do you pay?
23 A Let's say, if she comes every two
24 weeks, it's $75.
25 Q Did you have any housecleaning help
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2 before this accident?
3A Periodically she would bring in
4 somebody, yes, but not weekly, not monthly.
5 QIs there anything else, anything else
6 you can tell me that changed your relationship as
7 a result of this accident?
8 A Between us?
9 QYes.
10 A Well, my wife now doesn't want to go
11 to as many places as we used to. She's more home,
12 I won't say homebound.She spends more time at
13 home.She feels comfortable in those
14 surroundings.
15 If we are going to see friends or
16 relatives, how long is the trip by car, et cetera.
17 She is not as willing to participate in outside
18 activities as she used to.
19 For example, my wife did volunteer
20 work for the Freeport Recreational Center.She
21 would go there by taking a bus or car.She
22 stopped that.She doesn't do that.So she
23 doesn't meet the great people she used to see at
24 the rec center.I encouraged her, but unless I
25 take her, she is not going.
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2 QAnything else you can think of?
3A That's about it.
4 Again, I detected, maybe I should not
5 say it in front of her, I detected a significant
6 personality change since the accident.
7 She is not the same kind of
8 confident, outgoing person she used to be.She's
9 more hesitant, more timid.She is not as assured
10 of herself.
11QHas she received any medical
12 treatment for that, that you know of?
13 A No.
14 Q Had you ever been to the Nassau,
15 Bahamas before this accident?
16 A No.
17 QWere you aware that Marriott was not
18the owner of that hotel?
19 A Absolutely not.
20 QDid you see any signs indicating it
21 was operated under a franchise agreement?
22 A Quite the contrary.There is a huge
23sign that says "Marriott" in the front, and
24everything I got says "Marriott."
" .
25 MR. MUSURCA:I move to strike.
Case 1:03-cv-03042-DCF Document 39-3 Filed 02/29/08 Page 27 of 32
98
1
ROBERT B. TOPPEL
(
2 No more questions. Thank you.
3
4 EXAMINATION BY MS. TAYLOR:
5 QCan you tell me how your wife helped
6 you before the accident?
7 A I don't have a huge corporation. I
8 don't farm out things.
9 I do have invoices. I request
10 proposals, and I do have to submit proposals to
11 people. I'm a hunter, peeker. My wife would do
12 the typing. We have an electronic typewriter.
13 She doesn't type. I hunt and peck.
14 Q How did that change after the
15 accident?
16 A I do all the invoices. I do all the
17 requests for proposals. I do all the thank you
18 letters. She doesn't do any of that stuff.
19 MS. TAYLOR: Nothing else
20
21 (TIME NOTED: 12:10 P.M.)
22
23
24
.
Case 1:03-cv-03042-DCF Document 39-3 Filed 02/29/08 Page 28 of 32
99
1
ROBERT B. TOPPEL
25
CITTONE REPORTERS
(212)286-9222
(732)777-9500
2 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
3
Case 1:03-cv-03042-DCF Document 39-3 Filed 02/29/08 Page 29 of 32
100
1
4 STATE OF NEW YORK)
:ss
5 COUNTY OF )
6
7 We, GLENNA TOPPEL and ROBERT TOPPEL,
8 hereby certify that we have read the transcript
9 of my testimony taken under oath in our
10 depositions of January 10, 2007; that the
11 transcript is a true, complete and correct
12 record of what was asked, answered and said
13 during this deposition, and that the answers on
14 the record as given by me are true and correct.
15
16
17
18 GLENNA TOPPEL and ROBERT TOPPEL
19
20 Signed and subscribed to before me, this day of
21 2007.
22 Notary Public
23
24
2 CERTIFICATION
3 STATE OF NEW YORK)
ss
4 COUNTY OF NEW YORK )
5 I, ALBERT M. CITTONE, a Certified Court
6 Reporter and Notary Public of the State of New
7 York, DO HEREBY CERTIFY that GLENNA TOPPEL and
8 ROBERT TOPPEL, the witness whose deposition is
9 hereinbefore set forth, was duly sworn, and that
10 such deposition is a true record of the testimony
11 given by such witness.
12 I FURTHER CERTIFY that I am not related to
13 any of the parties to this action by blood or
14 marriage, and that I am in no way interested in
15 the outcome of this matter.
16 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my
17 hand this 23rd day of January 2007.
18
19
20
21
22 ALBERT M. CITTONE
23 Notary Public of the State of New York
24
25
CITTONE REPORTERS
(212)286-9222(732)777-9500
Case 1:03-cv-03042-DCF Document 39-3 Filed 02/29/08 Page 30 of 32
101
1
I
2
INDEX
3
4 WITNESSES:PAGE I LINE
5 GLENNA TOPPEL
6 EXAMINATION BY MR. MUSURCA3 I 6
7 ROBERT BERNARD TOPPEL
8 EXAMINATION BY MR. MUSURCA74 I 8
9 EXAMINATION BY MS. TAYLOR99 I 4
10
INDEX OF EXHIBITS:
11
EXHIBITDESCRIPTIONPAGE I LINE
12
A Copy of photograph16 I 22
13
i
I,
R E Q U E S T:
14
Pictures68 I 22
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
CITTONE REPORTERS
(212)286-9222(732)777-9500
Filed 02/29/08 Page 31of 32
Case 1:03-cv-03042-DCFDocument 39-3
102
1
Case 1:03-cv-03042-DCF Document 39-3 Filed 02/29/08 Page 32 of 32 I
ERRATA SHEET I
Page Line(s)
2£ /
71 .5"
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Corrections and/or Changes
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Sworn to befor me this
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7Glenna & Rob pPcl
·
🙂 day of
J-U · , 2007
<:.. .Lo/ mj
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Notary Public
LOUISE CREW Notary Public, State of NY f1(; 4987844
I
Qualified m 1!ass<c>u County
Commission expires Oct. 21, 2009
1 –
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