BarrSternberg

Alfred Heekin, 84, suffered severe brain injuries on January 7, 2000, when he swerved to avoid a wrong-lane escort vehicle and struck an oversized manufactured home a Bennett Truck Transport rig was hauling across both lanes of Route 9 in Bennington, Vermont. He died nineteen months later. His widow, Marion Heekin, sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, and the Bennington firm now known as BarrSternberg took the case to a jury trial before Judge J. Garvan Murtha. On the third day of trial, with Marion Heekin about to testify, Bennett agreed to pay $1,200,000 to settle the wrongful death claim. Vermont imposes no cap on wrongful death damages, and because the case settled before verdict, the full amount stood with no appeal.