Schnitzer Steel Settles Fatal Crash Case for $68 Million After $280 Million Verdict
After trial: Schnitzer Southeast's counsel said immediately after the August 23, 2019 verdict that it planned to appeal, calling the trial 'riddled with error.' No appellate ruling was found. Instead, Schnitzer Steel's SEC filings show that in the first quarter of its 2020 fiscal year, the quarter right after trial, the company settled this suit together with the still pending suit of Judy Madere's twin sister Trudy Hebert for a combined $68 million, and that the combined $103 million paid across all five wrongful death suits from the crash was substantially covered by insurance with no further contingencies remaining. The filings do not state how the $68 million was divided between the two estates. No court ever ruled on the verdict or on the $100 million punitive award; the case settled before any post-trial motion or appeal was decided.
Won by Butler Prather LLP.
On July 18, 2016, a Schnitzer Southeast tractor-trailer crossed the center line of U.S. Highway 80 in Russell County, Alabama, and killed five members of one family in a head-on collision, including Judy Madere, 58. A Muscogee County State Court jury in Columbus, Georgia found Schnitzer Southeast and its parent, Schnitzer Steel Industries, liable and returned a $280,065,000 verdict for Madere's death on August 23, 2019, reported at the time as the largest wrongful death verdict against a trucking company. Schnitzer said it would appeal, but instead of litigating the verdict, it resolved Madere's suit together with her twin sister Trudy Hebert's separate, still pending suit from the same crash for a combined $68 million in the following fiscal quarter, according to Schnitzer's SEC filings. Three earlier suits from the same crash, brought by the estates of the two children and their mother, had already settled for $35 million combined. The individual amounts within the $68 million settlement are not public.
What happened
On July 18, 2016, a Schnitzer Southeast tractor-trailer hauling a bin of scrap metal crossed the center line of U.S. Highway 80 in Russell County, Alabama, and hit a Nissan Rogue SUV head-on. Five members of one family died: Judy Madere, 58, who was riding in the back seat between her grandchildren, a 4-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl; Madere's twin sister, Trudy Hebert, in the front passenger seat; and the children's mother, Carrie Jones, who was driving.
Madere's husband, Larry, and her surviving daughter, Anjanette Thomas, sued Schnitzer Southeast and its Portland-based parent, Schnitzer Steel Industries, in Muscogee County State Court in Columbus, Georgia. Their lawyers said the truck driver had slept less than five hours the night before and fell asleep at the wheel. The driver said he swerved to avoid a dog; the family's lawyers said no other witness saw one. Schnitzer Southeast admitted its driver had been negligent, but Schnitzer Steel denied any responsibility for him, arguing the two companies were separate. The family's lawyers pointed out that the driver had applied for his trucking job on a Schnitzer Steel application form, evidence the jury used to find the companies were operating as a joint venture.
Brandon Peak of Butler Wooten & Peak tried the case for the family with partner Joel Wooten, along with Chris McDaniel and Ramsey Prather of the same firm and LaRae Dixon Moore of Page Scrantom Sprouse Tucker & Ford. After a week of testimony before Judge Andy Prather, the jury deliberated about 45 minutes on August 23, 2019, and returned a $280,065,000 verdict: $150 million for the value of Judy Madere's life, $30 million for her pain and suffering, $100 million in punitive damages, and $65,000 in attorney fees. Reporters described it as the largest wrongful death verdict against a trucking company on record.
Schnitzer's defense team, led by Bobby Shannon of Baker Donelson, said the company would appeal. Shannon argued jurors never learned that Madere's case was one of five separate suits arising from the same crash, three of which had already settled, and that Schnitzer had been unfairly blamed for never apologizing when, in his account, an early apology had been rejected by the family's own lawyers.
The appeal never reached a ruling. Trudy Hebert's own wrongful death suit over her sister's crash was still pending in Muscogee County Superior Court when the verdict came down. According to Schnitzer Steel's own SEC filings, the company resolved Hebert's suit together with Madere's in the first quarter of its 2020 fiscal year, the quarter immediately after trial, for a combined $68 million; the filings do not break out how much went to each estate. Three earlier suits from the same crash, brought on behalf of Carrie Jones and her two children, had already settled in fiscal 2019 for $35 million combined. Schnitzer told the SEC the aggregate $103 million paid across all five suits was substantially covered by insurance and that there were 'no further contingencies' left in the matter.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Law.com Daily Report, Aug. 24, 2019: verdict amount and breakdown ($150M value of life, $30M pain and suffering, $100M punitive, $65,000 fees), Muscogee County State Court venue, crash facts, joint-venture finding, and the winning team including Chris McDaniel and Ramsey Prather of Butler Wooten & Peak
- 2.Law.com Daily Report, Aug. 28, 2019: defense counsel Bobby Shannon of Baker Donelson confirms the appeal plan, discloses that three of the five related suits had already settled, and that the defense team was 'already at work on an appeal'
- 3.FreightWaves, Aug. 2019: crash location on U.S. Highway 80 in Russell County, Alabama, driver fatigue allegation, dog-swerve defense, and comparison to the prior largest trucking verdict
- 4.Schnitzer Steel Industries Form 10-Q (quarter ended May 31, 2020): discloses that of five wrongful death suits from the 2016 crash, three settled for $35 million combined in fiscal 2019 and the remaining two settled for $68 million combined in the first quarter of fiscal 2020, an aggregate $103 million substantially covered by insurance with no further contingencies
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