On April 12, 2013, Roger Sabbah, 78, was at a T.G.I. Friday’s restaurant when his chair collapsed. He claimed the incident re-aggravated his lower back issues. Nearly six months later, on Oct. 4, 2013, Sabbah was driving in Woodland Hills when his vehicle was rear-ended by a vehicle operated by Sita Mojaradi. Sabbah claimed the collision also re-aggravated his lower back issues. Sabbah sued the operator of T.G.I. Friday’s, Briad Restaurant Group LLC (which was initially erroneously sued as “TGI Friday’s”. The company that refurbished the restaurant’s chairs sometime in 2012, IVR LLC, was later added as a defendant. Sabbah alleged that Briad Restaurant and IVR LLC negligently repaired and/or maintained the subject chair, creating a dangerous condition. Sabbah also filed a separate suit against Mojaradi, alleging that Mojaradi was negligent in the operation of her vehicle. The matters were ultimately consolidated. The defendants conceded liability., Sabbah claimed that the chair collapse on April 12, 2013, caused an aggravation of a prior lumbar injury. He also claimed that the motor vehicle collision on Oct. 4, 2013, caused a new bulging lumbar disc at the L5-S1 level, the spinal level below his prior lumbar fusion. About 10 months before the motor vehicle crash, on Dec. 6, 2012, Sabbah underwent a three-level lumbar fusion at the L2-3, L3-4, and L4-5 levels. He then underwent physical therapy and multiple epidural injections to the lumbar spine. However, Sabbah claimed that the subject motor vehicle collision was so severe that it caused a new extrusion of disc material at the spinal level below the prior fusion, at L5-S1. He was subsequently taken by ambulance to a hospital after the collision with Mojaradi. Sabbah alleged that he ultimately required additional surgery on his lower back — specifically a microdiscectomy at the L5-S1 level — which he underwent on Oct. 31, 2014. Sabbah claimed that he is left with permanent, constant pain to his lower back. Thus, Sabbah sought recovery of $41,095.56 in past medical costs and an unspecified amount in future medical costs. He also sought recovery of damages for his past and future pain and suffering. Mojaradi’s counsel noted that Sabbah’s main complaint in the emergency room was pain to his neck. However, when he went to get a neck X-ray at the hospital, Sabbah allegedly told the technician that he was also having pain in his lower back and that he had a surgery a few months earlier. As a result, an X-ray of Sabbah’s lower back was also taken in the E.R. Mojaradi’s counsel contended that the subject motor vehicle accident was so minor that it could not have caused any significant injury. Counsel also contended that the appearance and timing of Sabbah’s L5-S1 disc bulge was consistent with a subsequent incident on July 3, 2014, when Sabbah pushed a piano with his knee and then reported a significant increase in his symptoms. Mojaradi’s counsel noted that in deposition, Sabbah’s treating neurosurgeon agreed with the defense’s position on causation, as the physician was shown an email he received from Sabbah, in which Sabbah said that his pain increased three months before the October 2014 surgery. The treater also claimed that he remembered that after the first surgery, he wrote a note about how Sabbah wrote an email to him several months after the accident with Mojaradi, but before the October 2014 surgery, advising that he no longer had sciatica pain. Mojaradi’s counsel contended that, shortly before the second surgery, Sabbah told his treating neurosurgeon that his lower back pain had increased significantly after pushing a piano with his knee while moving. As a result, the treating neurosurgeon agreed during depositions that Sabbah’s pain was most likely from the piano incident.