Injured garage tech awarded $4M

 A jury in Illinois handed down a $4.16 million verdict against the City of Elmhurst in a workplace injury case. The verdict, a record in DuPage County in a non-medical malpractice case, went to a garage door technician, Joshua Jaeger, who was severely injured in a 2009 fall from city equipment while estimating repairs on a broken garage door spring at the public works garage. It was a city employee who hoisted Jaeger 16 feet on a platform to inspect the spring when the platform fell to the concrete floor below. Jaeger, then 26, suffered a severe fracture of his right thigh and also injured his back. The jury award included $1.86 million for lost earning capacity, $1.3 million for pain and suffering and $1 million for loss of a normal life. Three years after the mishap, Jaeger still can’t go back to work, unable to lift heavy weights or climb a ladder, according to a report in The Chicago Tribune.