From skid row to riches to an early grave

[n2doc]

By Robert Faturechi, Los Angeles Times
August 17, 2010|7:24 p.m.

Steven Schulman, the man who made his way from skid row to winning a huge cash verdict after being run over by a semi, was found dead Tuesday. The 55-year-old was discovered in his Van Nuys apartment among several empty bottles of malt liquor.

Schulman's bizarre rags-to-riches tale was recently chronicled in The Times.

Soon after becoming homeless in 2007, the former plumber's legs were crushed by an 18-wheeler as he slept near the parking lot of an Encino market. The accident hobbled him and left him struggling to recuperate. Despite requiring a walker and an orthopedic boot, he boarded half a dozen buses and two trains from a North Hollywood convalescent home to the Irwindale headquarters of the trucking company responsible for his injuries.

He was hoping to be compensated for the accident, but his request was met with laughs. His subsequent attempts to take legal action on his own foundered, but a chance encounter with a high-profile attorney took Schulman from skid row to a Van Nuys courtroom.

In September, a jury awarded him almost $700,000 in the accident.

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rags-to-riches-20100818,0,6926110.story