$125 Million Verdict, Reduced to About $85 Million, for a 21-Year-Old Left Quadriplegic When a Drunk, Sleepless Driver Ran a Red Light in Oxnard
After trial: The trial court denied Zink's Proposition 213 (Civil Code section 3333.4) motion to eliminate the $42.5 million in noneconomic damages, holding that Briones' $35,000 DMV financial-responsibility deposit and Zink's DUI conviction preserved his right to general damages. The court then reduced the $125,168,202 verdict post-trial to approximately $85 million, per the Daily Journal's 2016 Top Verdicts listing; we could not confirm from public sources which component was reduced (the arithmetic suggests the punitive award). No appellate opinion has surfaced. Zink was imprisoned and carried a Nationwide policy with limits reported at $50,000 to $75,000; what was actually collected, including any recovery from the insurer for refusing the limits demand, is not public.
Won by Dordick Law Corporation.
Francisco Briones, 21, was turning left on a green light on his way to a 5 a.m. warehouse shift in Oxnard on March 23, 2013, when Christopher Zink, drunk at 0.14 percent, awake for 24 hours and asleep at the wheel, ran a red light at about 50 mph and hit him. Briones' C4-5 vertebrae ruptured and he was paralyzed from the neck down. Zink pleaded guilty to felony DUI causing injury and went to prison for seven years; his insurer, Nationwide, had refused a timely policy-limits demand. On January 22, 2016, a Ventura County jury found Zink 100 percent at fault, found malice, and awarded $125,168,202, half of it punitive damages. The court rejected Zink's Proposition 213 motion to strip the pain-and-suffering award but reduced the judgment post-trial to about $85 million.
What happened
Francisco Briones was 21 and working in a warehouse to support his mother and four younger siblings. He had been an award-winning athlete in high school, playing baseball, football and soccer, and had started classes at Oxnard College before leaving to work. For years he had coached his younger brother's Little League team. On the morning of March 23, 2013, he was scheduled to leave work early to take the family to Little League opening ceremonies.
He never got there. At about 5 a.m. he was driving his parents' car west on Channel Islands Boulevard in Oxnard toward the intersection with Rice Avenue. The car ahead of him made a left turn on the green light, and Briones followed it into the turn. Christopher Zink was coming down Rice Avenue at about 50 mph. He entered the intersection against a red light and struck Briones' car broadside. Zink's blood alcohol level tested at 0.14 percent. He admitted afterward that he had not slept in 24 hours and had fallen asleep at the wheel. At trial the plaintiff's evidence put his consumption that night at the equivalent of 17 drinks, and showed he had been in a prior collision while driving under the influence.
The impact lacerated Briones' head and ruptured his spine at C4-5, paralyzing him from the neck down instantly. His head fell forward and blocked his windpipe; a passerby who witnessed the crash ran to the car and held his head up so he could breathe until paramedics arrived. He had emergency surgery at Ventura County Medical Center to stabilize his spine, then more stabilization surgeries over the next three months, then more than three months of rehabilitation at Rancho Los Amigos in Downey. He went home to be cared for around the clock by his mother and siblings. He can move his head and neck and has very limited use of his left forearm. He lives with autonomic dysreflexia, uncontrolled spasms that send his blood pressure to dangerous levels, and recurring bladder and kidney infections.
Zink pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and causing bodily injury under Vehicle Code section 23153(a), with a great-bodily-injury enhancement, and was sentenced to seven years in prison. His insurer, Nationwide, refused a timely demand for the policy limits, reported at between $50,000 and $75,000, and blamed Briones for the crash. Gary A. Dordick of what was then Gary A. Dordick, A Law Corporation, in Beverly Hills, was brought in to try the case with Diana S. Diskin of his office and Mark K. Flores of Crane Flores in Santa Barbara. Defense counsel argued that Briones should have anticipated that Zink would not stop and should have taken evasive action. During the trial, Briones' family was evicted from their Oxnard home and lived in a hotel their lawyers paid for.
After nine trial days before Judge John Nho Trong Nguyen, the jury deliberated one day and on January 22, 2016, found Zink 100 percent liable and Briones not at fault at all. It found that Zink had acted with malice. The award was $125,168,202: $740,017 in past medical expenses, $17,989,849 in future medical expenses, $49,837 in past and $1,304,398 in future lost earning capacity, $7.5 million for past and $35 million for future pain and suffering, and $62,584,101 in punitive damages. The damages votes ran 9-3 and 10-2; the malice finding and the punitive award were unanimous. The Daily Journal ranked it the largest personal injury verdict in California in 2016.
Zink's lawyer then moved to strip the $42.5 million in noneconomic damages under Proposition 213, Civil Code section 3333.4, because the car Briones was driving, his parents' car, was uninsured. Judge Nguyen denied the motion. Briones had posted a $35,000 deposit with the DMV to satisfy California's financial responsibility law, and the court held that, together with Zink's DUI conviction, this entitled him to recover general damages under section 3333.4(c). The court nevertheless reduced the judgment post-trial to about $85 million, which is the figure the Daily Journal carried in its 2016 Top Verdicts list. Public reporting does not say which component was cut. No appellate opinion in the case has surfaced.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.VerdictSearch (Law.com): case number, January 22, 2016 verdict date, Judge John Nho Trong Nguyen, counsel of record including Gary A. Dordick and Diana S. Diskin, crash facts, injuries and treatment, itemized damages including $62,584,101 punitive, jury votes, the Proposition 213 ruling and the $35,000 DMV deposit
- 2.Plaintiff Magazine (Christopher Dolan), March 2016: Zink's seven-year sentence, Nationwide's refusal of the policy-limits demand, 17 drinks and prior DUI collision evidence, the defense motion to strip $42.5 million in noneconomic damages under Civil Code section 3333.4
- 3.Daily Journal, Top Plaintiffs' Verdict by Dollar (2016): Briones v. Zink listed at $85 million, the judge reduced the $125 million award post-trial and Dordick defended most of the verdict
- 4.California Accident Attorneys Blog (Steven M. Sweat), February 17, 2016: Briones was driving his parents' uninsured car, the jury found him not at fault, the case was filed in April 2013
- 5.Dordick Law Corporation (firm)
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