Franklin County Jury Verdict for Motorcyclist Killed on Diesel-Slick Ramp, Reduced to $1.52 Million
After trial: The Tenth District reversed the $5.5 million punitive award and the attorney fees based on it in 2004, leaving $1,518,000 in compensatory damages. The Ohio Supreme Court denied reconsideration in May 2005.
Won by Cooper Elliott.
A Franklin County jury found a J.B. Hunt truck driver and her employer liable after diesel fuel leaking from her semi caused a fatal motorcycle crash on an I-71 ramp in Columbus in August 2001. The jury awarded $1,449,000 for wrongful death, $69,000 for the widow's emotional distress and $5.5 million in punitive damages. The Tenth District reversed the punitive award and the attorney fees tied to it, and the $1,518,000 in compensatory damages stood.
What happened
On August 4, 2001, Sharon Derenia was driving a J.B. Hunt semi-truck from Lima to a railroad yard in Grove City, Ohio. On westbound Interstate 70 in Columbus, near the interchange with Interstate 71, she ran over a heavy steel bar that had fallen in the road. It punctured her fuel tank, and diesel began pouring onto the highway.
Derenia drove on for some distance and took the right-hand exit onto Interstate 71 south, stopping near the bottom of a curving downgrade ramp. About nine minutes later, Warren 'Joe' Schmidt rode onto the ramp on his motorcycle, with his wife, Melissa, following on her own. He slid on the spilled fuel, struck the guardrail and died.
The family sued Derenia and J.B. Hunt in Franklin County in September 2001, claiming wrongful death for Joe Schmidt and negligent infliction of emotional distress for Melissa. Cooper & Elliott represented the estate and Melissa Schmidt. The question at trial was what Derenia knew and when. She testified she did not realize the truck was leaking until she had stopped. A State Highway Patrol sergeant testified she told him at the scene that other drivers had warned her she was 'leaking something' while she was still moving. Police testified the fuel trail ran at least 4,737 feet and covered nearly the width of the ramp, and several motorists said they lost control of their vehicles on it. The family's trucking expert testified that a driver who strikes an object and feels a problem with a tire should pull to the shoulder at once and inspect the truck. Derenia never set out flares or warning triangles, before or after the crash.
The trial ran 12 days. On October 2, 2002, the jury awarded $1,449,000 for the wrongful death of Joe Schmidt and $69,000 to Melissa Schmidt for emotional distress. It added $5.5 million in punitive damages and found that attorney fees were warranted. The trial court later entered judgment against Derenia primarily and J.B. Hunt secondarily.
The defendants appealed to the Tenth District Court of Appeals, which ruled on October 12, 2004. By a 2-1 vote, it held that the evidence did not show the conscious disregard for others' safety that Ohio requires for punitive damages, reversed that award, and reversed the attorney fee award that rested on it. The court left every other part of the judgment undisturbed, so the compensatory awards of $1,449,000 and $69,000 stood. The Ohio Supreme Court denied reconsideration in May 2005.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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