$21 Million Pierce County Verdict for Pedestrian Struck in a Sumner Crosswalk, Followed by Bankruptcy and a Still Unresolved Insurance Fight

On December 7, 2019, Cristina Anderson was crossing a street in downtown Sumner, Washington, when a car driven by Wendy Gibson hit her. Anderson suffered a traumatic brain injury.

Anderson sued Gibson and the City of Sumner in Pierce County Superior Court. Gibson was insured by Farmers Insurance Company of Washington and Mid-Century Insurance, which assigned a defense lawyer to represent her. Her policy carried $25,000 in liability protection.

Anderson settled with the City of Sumner shortly before trial. The case against Gibson went to a jury, and in August 2023 that jury returned a verdict of $21 million.

What happened next is the part that matters most to anyone reading this number. Gibson filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The bankruptcy trustee took control of every legal claim Gibson personally held, including any claims against her own insurer and against the lawyer Farmers had assigned to defend her. With the bankruptcy court's approval and after notice to Gibson's other creditors, the trustee sold those claims to Anderson. The bankruptcy stay lifted in March 2024.

Anderson then amended her complaint to go after the insurers directly. Represented by Raymond Dearie of Dearie Law Group, she brought claims for declaratory relief, garnishment, breach of contract, insurance bad faith, and violations of Washington's Consumer Protection Act and Insurance Fair Conduct Act. Her theory was that Farmers had refused to negotiate in good faith, had declined to blame or cross claim against the City of Sumner, and had put its own costs ahead of the financial exposure of the person it was supposed to be protecting.

Farmers moved to dismiss under CR 12(b)(6). It argued that Washington law, under Kommavongsa v. Haskell, forbids assigning a legal malpractice claim to the opposing party in the very litigation that produced it. The trial court dismissed Anderson's entire complaint.

On October 21, 2025, Division II of the Washington Court of Appeals issued a published opinion that split the difference. It held that the bar on assigning legal malpractice claims does apply even when the transfer happens involuntarily through a bankruptcy sale, so the claims rooted in the defense lawyer's alleged malpractice stay dismissed. But it reversed on everything else. The acquired claims that were not malpractice claims, and Anderson's own independent claims against Farmers, were wrongly thrown out. The court also rejected Farmers' argument that Gibson's bankruptcy discharge meant she suffered no harm. The case went back to the trial court, and the appeals court awarded costs to neither side.

Anderson petitioned the Washington Supreme Court for review of the malpractice ruling on December 30, 2025. Farmers filed its answer on February 13, 2026.

The $21 million judgment against Wendy Gibson exists. Whether any meaningful portion of it is ever collected depends on litigation that has not finished. Against the driver herself, the recoverable insurance was $25,000.