Residents Called Sullivan Road Homicide Alley and the Parish Had the Skid Tests to Prove It. A Judge Overrode the Jury.
After trial: Reduced on appeal. The trial court's JNOV awarded the Adams family $2,028,446 (Jason $1,853,446, his parents $175,000 together, derived from the amended figures and the 20 percent cut the opinion applied). On November 14, 2001 the First Circuit reallocated 20 percent of the fault to the deceased driver and amended the awards to $1,482,757 for Jason Adams, $80,000 for Nancy Adams and $60,000 for Thomas Adams, then affirmed the judgment in all other respects. The judgment runs against a parish government, and Louisiana judgments against political subdivisions are payable only from appropriated funds; whether and when it was paid is not public. No further appeal was found.
Won by Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys.
On May 10, 1993, three high school students were coming home from school on Sullivan Road in East Baton Rouge Parish when the driver lost control in the Sparkle Drive curve on wet pavement, crossed the centerline and hit a pickup. The driver and one passenger died. The other passenger, 16-year-old Jason Adams, suffered a torn heart valve requiring open-heart surgery, permanent frontal lobe brain damage, a compound leg fracture, a crushed ankle and a fractured pelvis. A jury cleared the Parish, but the trial judge granted judgment notwithstanding the verdict because the Parish had skid tests and citizen complaints showing the road was dangerously slick and had not fixed it. The First Circuit affirmed liability, put 20 percent on the driver, and left the Adams family with $1,622,757.
What happened
Sullivan Road, Louisiana Highway 3034, runs between Greenwell Springs Road and Hooper Road in East Baton Rouge Parish. By 1990 a resident who lived on it had written to the Parish calling it homicide alley and had moved away out of fear for her family. Her complaint was logged by the Parish's Citizen's Service Office in July 1990 as a road hazard. The Parish's own engineer asked the Louisiana Transportation Research Center for a skid test. It was run on October 3, 1990. Any skid number below 34 was supposed to be addressed. The Sparkle Drive curve tested at 27.6 northbound and 26.8 southbound, and the research center wrote back that the surface needed texture improvement. Nothing was done, and the Parish's engineer conceded the road would have been even slicker by the day of the crash.
Shortly after 2:30 p.m. on May 10, 1993, Matthew Buhler, a 17-year-old high school junior, was driving his 1984 Toyota pickup home from school on Sullivan Road with two friends as passengers, Jason Adams and Jason LeBlanc. The road was wet. In the Sparkle Drive curve the truck lost traction, crossed the centerline, and struck a 1992 Ford pickup driven by George Ellis. Matthew Buhler and Jason LeBlanc, 18, were killed. Ellis suffered rib fractures, a collapsed lung, a torn bicep and a fractured sternum.
Jason Adams was 16. The impact tore the tricuspid valve in his heart, and he underwent open-heart surgery to repair it; his cardiovascular surgeon testified the valve still leaks and will likely need replacing. He suffered a frontal lobe injury to the right side of his brain that left him with permanent brain damage, a compound fracture of the left tibia and fibula fixed with a rod, a severe crushing injury to the right ankle, a fractured pelvis and a fractured finger.
Four lawsuits were filed and consolidated. Jason's parents, Thomas and Nancy Adams, sued the Parish and the state DOTD in September 1993. The case was tried to a jury in July 1997. The jury found the Parish not negligent and put 100 percent of the fault on Matthew Buhler. The plaintiffs moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. On November 24, 1997 the trial court granted it, conditionally granted a new trial, and after post-trial briefing on quantum signed a judgment on November 8, 1999 awarding the plaintiffs a combined $3,778,004.80.
The Parish appealed. On November 14, 2001 the First Circuit held that the evidence overwhelmingly established Sullivan Road presented an unreasonable risk of harm, that the Parish had actual knowledge of the slick condition through the skid tests and the complaints, and that the JNOV was proper. It found the trial court clearly wrong, however, to assign the driver no fault at all: Matthew Buhler had driven the road daily, knew it was slick, and was at or near the speed limit in wet weather in a truck with a high center of gravity and a tendency to fishtail. The court set his fault at 20 percent, the lowest a reasonable factfinder could assess, and cut every award by that share. It found no abuse of discretion in the amounts themselves.
As amended, the judgment for Jason Adams was $1,482,757, with $80,000 to Nancy Adams and $60,000 to Thomas Adams, all with legal interest from judicial demand, against the City of Baton Rouge/Parish of East Baton Rouge. Joseph J. McKernan and Gordon J. McKernan of Baton Rouge were counsel of record for the Adams family. The LeBlanc, Buhler and Ellis families had separate counsel, and their awards are not included here.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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