NEW YORK, May 16 (UPI) -- A New Jersey man hurt working on the Ugandan Mission to the United States in 1990 wants the money a court awarded him for serious injuries.
Christopher Sales, 49 and living on disability, was awarded $1.85 million for injuries he received in a fall while working at the embassy, but the embassy won't pay up and because of diplomatic immunity, U.S. courts have limited authority, the New York Post reported Monday. The court also awarded nearly $250,000 to Sales' wife, Carol, but it never was paid either, Sales said.
But "they don't have diplomatic immunity in Uganda," Sales' lawyer, Mark Krassner, told the Post.
Krassner hired a Ugandan law firm to help with the case and it filed papers in Kampala, seeking to force the government to pay the judgment, now estimated at more than $5 million because of interest.
Krassner said Sales desperately needs the money.
Sales "is not doing real well," Krassner said. "He can't work. He's disabled. He has kids, and he's struggling to make ends meet."
Krassner said Sales has been collecting federal disability since last fall.
"It's very unfortunate," Krassner said.
