Federal Judge Awards Motorcyclist $5.39 Million After Border Patrol Truck Collision on Mountain Road

On the afternoon of Aug. 27, 2009, John Hendrickson, then 45, was riding his motorcycle east on the Otay Mountain Truck Trail near Dulzura, California. The road is unpaved, winds through multiple blind turns and has unprotected drop-offs. Heading the other way was a pickup driven by a U.S. Border Patrol agent. At a blind 90-degree turn, where the road narrows to about 11 feet, the truck and the motorcycle collided.

Hendrickson's left leg took the worst of it. He suffered a pilon fracture of the lower tibia and fibula, a fracture above the knee in the femur, and a broken patella, along with a concussion. Border Patrol medics drove him down the mountain, and an ambulance took him to an emergency room. Over the following months he had external fixation, internal fixation of the femur, tibia, fibula and patella, a bone graft, hardware removal and manipulation under anesthesia. The bones in his lower leg did not heal properly, and on April 8, 2010, surgeons performed a below-the-knee amputation. He was left with stump and phantom pain and ongoing migraines.

Because the driver worked for the federal government, Hendrickson sued the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which is tried to a judge rather than a jury. His case was filed in the Southern District of California as Hendrickson v. United States, No. 11-cv-1746. Robert J. Francavilla and Angela Jae Chun of Casey Gerry Schenk Francavilla Blatt & Penfield tried it. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steve B. Chu and Katherine L. Parker defended.

Liability was contested. Hendrickson's side argued that the agent took the blind turn at roughly 29 to 32 miles per hour without checking the convex mirror or yielding, contrary to training on driving slowly around blind curves. The government denied fault and argued that skid marks showed Hendrickson was riding on the inside of the road, limiting his view, and that he was speeding. Each side called a full set of experts, including accident reconstruction, orthopedic surgery, prosthetics, vocational rehabilitation, economics and pain management. The defense also argued that his migraines predated the crash.

After four days of trial, Judge Larry Burns found for Hendrickson on damages of $6,338,491: $589,480 in past medical costs, $1,846,780 in future medical costs, $107,232 in past lost earnings, $362,499 in future lost earnings, $1,250,000 for past pain and suffering and $2,182,500 for future pain and suffering. He put 85 percent of the fault on the United States and 15 percent on Hendrickson, and the judgment was signed on June 18, 2014, for $5,387,717.35. The docket shows costs taxed in September 2014 and no notice of appeal.