$10.58 Million Verdict for Widower and Parents After Concrete Truck Kills Wife, Restored on Appeal

On the morning of June 21, 2007, Isaiah Lester was driving his wife, Jessica, to work, heading west on the Thomas Jefferson Parkway in Albemarle County, Virginia. Coming the other way was a loaded concrete truck operated by William Donald Sprouse, an Allied Concrete Company employee. Sprouse was going too fast for the road, lost control, crossed the center line and tipped the truck onto the Lesters' car.

Jessica Lester suffered injuries that proved fatal. Her husband was in the car when it happened, and he was the person legally responsible for deciding to take her off life support. He was later diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Sprouse pleaded guilty to manslaughter in her death.

Lester sued Allied Concrete and Sprouse in 2008, both as administrator of his wife's estate and for his own injuries. Jessica's parents were named as statutory beneficiaries of the wrongful death claim, and the cases were consolidated in Charlottesville Circuit Court. Matthew B. Murray, then managing partner of the Charlottesville office of Allen, Allen, Allen & Allen, was lead counsel. The defense denied liability even after the guilty plea.

Trial began on December 7, 2010, before Judge Edward L. Hogshire, and lasted three days. The jury awarded Lester $6,227,000 on the wrongful death claim and $2,350,000 on his personal injury claim. It awarded each of Jessica's parents $1,000,000. Together the awards came to about $10.58 million.

The case then carried a serious complication. Allied Concrete showed that Murray had told Lester to clean up his Facebook page after a discovery request, that photographs were deleted, and that a discovery response was false. The trial court found the misconduct and ordered sanctions against both the lawyer and the client to cover the defense's fees and costs on the issue, but it declined to order a new trial. It also cut Lester's wrongful death award by $4,127,000, to $2,100,000, reasoning that it was out of line with the parents' awards.

Both sides appealed. On January 10, 2013, the Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed the denial of a new trial, finding that the trial court had reduced the effect of the misconduct and that Allied Concrete had received a fair trial. It also upheld the denial of a mistrial over a juror's ties to the Allen firm. The court did call Murray's conduct patently unethical. On damages, it held that comparing a husband's award with a parent's award was error, because the loss of a spouse differs from the loss of a child, and the trial court had not made a reasoned evaluation of Lester's own damages. It reversed the reduction and entered final judgment on the full verdict.