$5.4 Million Verdict for Widow of Man Killed in FedEx Ground Crash on I-40
An Albuquerque federal jury awarded $5.4 million to the widow of Martin Leon, a California man who died after a sleep-deprived FedEx Ground contractor driver rear-ended a tractor-trailer on Interstate 40 near Grants, New Mexico.
What happened
On November 30, 2011, Martin Leon was riding as an authorized passenger in a FedEx Ground tractor-trailer driven by contractor Federico Martinez-Leandro on Interstate 40 in Cibola County, New Mexico. The truck struck the rear of another tractor-trailer operated by Larry Payne. The collision was severe enough to cause Martin Leon serious injuries from which he died.
His widow, Elia Leon, filed suit individually and as personal representative of her husband's estate, naming FedEx Ground Package System, Inc. as the primary defendant. A separate claim against the driver of the other truck and his employer, Puckett Transportation, Inc., was resolved before trial.
At the center of the case was the relationship between FedEx Ground and its contractor drivers. Plaintiff's attorneys argued that the company bore responsibility for the actions of Martinez-Leandro, whose hours of service and fatigue at the time of the crash were contested during pretrial proceedings. U.S. District Judge James O. Browning presided over the matter and issued a published ruling on motions in limine at 163 F.Supp.3d 1050 (D.N.M. 2016), which identifies Mark J. Caruso as counsel for the plaintiff.
The jury returned a verdict of $5.4 million for Elia Leon. The Santa Fe New Mexican reported the award under the headline "$5.4M awarded to family of co-driver in FedEx crash case."
No appellate decision reducing or reversing the verdict has been identified in the published record.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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