After years of blaming Yolanda Jackson’s boyfriend for her death at the Lakewood train station, MARTA is paying her family $5 million to settle claims that its shoddy overpass railing caused her to fall more than 25 feet onto her head.
The 46-year-old’s family is receiving another $600,000 from a MARTA insurer and $400,000 from a Cumming contractor that installed the overpass railing, which collapsed on Feb. 15, 2020. The settlement came on the eve of trial in mid-November, and Jackson’s family officially dismissed their case on Dec. 5.
Credit: Supplied
Credit: Supplied
Gabe Banks and Sam Weaver, attorneys for Jackson’s family, said the settlement speaks for itself with regard to MARTA’s alleged culpability.
“We fought long and hard for over two years to try to bring justice to Ms. Jackson,” Banks said. “I do believe that the family was happy with the settlement and ultimately that they can move on with their lives.”
A MARTA spokesperson said it denies liability and settled to avoid the risk of a larger verdict.
“MARTA’s top priority is and has always been the safety of our customers and employees,” said Stephany Fisher, MARTA’s senior director of communications. “We work diligently to ensure all parts of our system are safe and acknowledge that accidents involving our vehicles, and on our properties can and do happen.”
A representative of contractor Cooper & Co declined to comment on the case.
Credit: Supplied
Credit: Supplied
Had the case gone to trial, the jury would have been told by the judge that MARTA scrapped parts of the failed railing and a “twin” railing it also replaced after Jackson’s fall, meaning those items couldn’t be inspected and tested by experts. The jury would have been further directed to presume that such evidence, if available, would have been harmful to MARTA.
That instruction was a sanction against MARTA, which also failed to provide requested documents on at least nine different occasions and claimed the documents did not exist. A March court order shows Jackson’s family had to get the documents through other means.
Banks and Weaver said they discovered through Georgia’s Open Records Act that MARTA modified the railing after it was installed in 2009 by Cooper & Co. They said MARTA’s modification in 2016 weakened the railing and that’s why it collapsed.
“That’s the straw that broke the camel’s back and ultimately resulted in this very favorable settlement to the family,” Banks said.
Fisher said the railing parts were unintentionally discarded when an outside vendor replaced them. She said MARTA didn’t purposely hide requested documents, which were first discovered through the Open Records Act process.
Credit: Supplied
Credit: Supplied
In case filings, MARTA tried to pin liability on Cooper & Co. Banks and Weaver said another of MARTA’s defenses throughout the case was that Jackson was pushed into or over the railing by her boyfriend, Adonis Heard.
“Whether he pushed her or whether she was leaning on it, it doesn’t matter,” Weaver said. “MARTA was at fault because the railing was so deficient that it failed to maintain the load bearing weight capacity that it was designed to hold up.”
Surveillance footage shows Heard pushing Jackson to the ground at the base of the stairs in the Lakewood station before they were on the overpass, Banks and Weaver said. They said there’s no footage of Heard pushing Jackson into or over the overpass railing.
When the railing collapsed, both Jackson and Heard fell. Jackson died at the scene. Heard was seriously injured.
Heard was initially arrested by MARTA police and charged with murder, aggravated assault and cocaine possession, court and jail records show. Prosecutors dropped those charges and Heard was reindicted in 2022 on charges including involuntary manslaughter.
In March 2023, prosecutors dropped all charges against Heard except a cocaine possession charge and three counts of simple battery, to which he pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to two years in prison and three years of probation, and given credit for the almost two years he had spent in custody.
The battery charges related to Heard pushing Jackson at the base of the stairs, and not at the overpass railing, Banks and Weaver said. They said it was their discovery about the defective overpass railing that prompted prosecutors to abandon the more serious charges against Heard.
In 2022, Heard filed his own lawsuit against MARTA and Cooper & Co. in relation to the railing collapse. His case was tossed by a Fulton County judge on Nov. 12.
Chip George, one of Heard’s attorneys, said a court-appointed special master had ruled the case should go to trial. He said it’s disappointing the judge disagreed.
“We believe the special master’s findings were well-reasoned and correct,” George said. “We are appealing the trial court’s order and continuing to fight for justice for Adonis.”
