Las Vegas Jury Awards $6.6 Million to Service Manager Hurt in Lane-Change Crash

On an evening in July 2013, Ethan Volungis clocked out of the Pep Boys at 7399 West Lake Mead Boulevard in Las Vegas, where he worked as a service manager, and started the drive home in his white 1996 Cadillac. His house was about two miles away. He did not get far. Seconds after leaving the store's parking lot, a car driven by Dr. Farooq Abdulla, a neonatal pediatrician who had also just left the Pep Boys, moved into his lane and struck the Cadillac.

At trial, Volungis testified that he saw the other car encroach on his lane, honked, braked hard and steered toward the concrete median in an attempt to avoid it. Abdulla told jurors he had been shopping for used tires for his daughter that day, had used his turn signal and looked over his shoulder, and never saw the Cadillac. The plaintiff's side argued that Abdulla had been attempting an illegal U-turn when the crash happened.

Volungis was 30 years old. His lawsuit described injuries to his head, neck and back. In August 2014 he underwent a two-level spinal fusion, and his lawyers showed jurors an X-ray of the hardware in his lower spine. They told the jury he was likely to have more back pain and could need further surgery.

The case was tried in the Eighth Judicial District Court in April and May 2016. Volungis's attorney, Dennis Prince, presented the case for the plaintiff, and the defense was led by attorney Craig Delk. The plaintiff's accident reconstruction expert, Ronald Probert, testified that the collision was an angular impact rather than a sideswipe and that Abdulla was the sole cause. The judge ruled as a matter of law that Abdulla had not presented enough evidence of any fault on Volungis's part to put that defense before the jury.

Jurors returned a verdict of about $6.6 million. About $1.5 million was for past and future medical expenses, and about $5.1 million was for pain, suffering, disability and loss of enjoyment of life, according to court records cited by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Abdulla appealed. He challenged the dismissal of his comparative negligence defense, the scope of Probert's testimony, and a claim that he was kept from arguing in closing that chiropractic overtreatment may have prolonged Volungis's pain. On April 25, 2019, the Nevada Supreme Court rejected each point and affirmed the judgment. The record showed the trial judge had allowed the overtreatment argument in closing, and Volungis's expert had conceded the point to the jury.