Estate of Motorcyclist Killed by Fleeing Truck Driver Keeps $1.27 Million After Punitive Award Against Employer Reversed
After trial: The Tenth District in 2008-Ohio-2023 reversed the punitive award against Rush, leaving $767,600 in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages against Knapp, plus $269,508.67 in fees and expenses. Rush's primary insurer paid the compensatory judgment in October 2003.
Won by Cooper Elliott.
A Franklin County jury in June 2003 found a Rush Transportation driver liable for the death of motorcyclist Robert L. Beavers Jr., who was run over on Groveport Road in Columbus in October 2001 while the driver fled. The jury awarded $767,600 in compensatory damages plus punitive damages against the driver and the company. The Tenth District later threw out the punitive award against Rush but left the compensatory award, the driver's punitive award and the attorney fees in place.
What happened
On October 9, 2001, Robert L. Beavers Jr. was riding a motorcycle on Groveport Road in Columbus when a tractor-trailer began a left turn from Lockbourne Road in front of him. Beavers braked, lost control, and the motorcycle went down on its side and slid toward the truck. He tumbled from it in the same direction.
The driver, William Knapp, was newly employed by Rush Transportation & Logistics and was on his way from Dayton to pick up a load bound for New York. He saw Beavers fall in his mirror. Rather than stop, he accelerated, and his trailer wheels went up and over something. A motorist following behind testified that the trailer struck the motorcycle and then Beavers. The truck crushed Beavers's torso and lacerated his heart, and he died of those injuries.
Knapp later said he panicked and took off. He pulled into a freight yard, denied knowing anything about an accident when the motorist confronted him there, and went on to the shipper. He asked the shipper to write an earlier time on his bill of lading, thinking it might give him an alibi, and then drove to New York. The following day Rush's safety director read about the crash in The Columbus Dispatch, called police, and had Knapp brought back to Dayton. Knapp denied involvement to his employer and at first to the detective, then confessed. Rush fired him at once.
The estate sued in December 2001, with Charles H. Cooper Jr. and Rex H. Elliott of Cooper & Elliott as its counsel. It pleaded negligence, wrongful death and respondeat superior, and added a negligent-hiring claim against Rush and punitive damages against both defendants. After an eight-day trial, the jury returned its verdict on June 11, 2003. It awarded $767,600 in compensatory damages, $500,000 in punitive damages against Knapp and $250,000 in punitive damages against Rush, and found the estate entitled to attorney fees. The trial court entered judgment against Rush for the full $1,517,600 on a respondeat superior theory. On October 29, 2003, Rush's primary insurer paid the compensatory judgment with interest.
Knapp filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy at about the time he appealed and was discharged. The bankruptcy court allowed the case to continue so the trial court could set fees and the estate could pursue the defendants' insurers. After a hearing, the trial court awarded $239,563.75 in attorney fees and $29,944.92 in expenses, a total of $269,508.67.
On April 29, 2008, the Tenth District Court of Appeals affirmed nearly all of it. Punitive damages were properly before the jury because the estate had a survivorship claim alongside the wrongful-death claim, and Knapp's flight supported a finding of malice. The court reversed only the punitive judgment against Rush, both the $250,000 the jury assessed against the company and the trial court's ruling that made Rush answer for Knapp's $500,000.Rush's written policy required drivers to stop, call dispatch and wait for police, it had no part in Knapp's conduct, and it fired him when it learned of it. The jury had also rejected the claim that Rush hired him recklessly. What stood was the compensatory award, the $500,000 in punitive damages against Knapp, and the fee award.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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