Odessa Head-On Crash With a Hunt Oil Pickup Ends in a $30 Million Settlement
After trial: The $30 million was paid by an insurance company for Hunt Oil rather than by Hunt Oil directly. The Midland Reporter-Telegram added an editor's note saying its first version had missed that point because the press release did not mention it. Hunt Oil denied responsibility, saying Crosson was a former employee acting on his own outside the work environment, and said it fired him after learning of the wreck. Sources differ on the exact date: the Midland Reporter-Telegram reported the settlement was reached Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, while The Texas Lawbook reported it came on a Wednesday. The case settled before a verdict, so there was nothing to appeal.
Won by Goudarzi & Young, L.L.P..
Barbara Dalby was in her car on State Highway 191 in Odessa, Texas, on a Friday night in November 2019 when a Ford F-150 owned by Hunt Oil Company crossed into her lane and hit her head on. Her lawyers said the driver, Hunt Oil employee Mikeal Crosson, had drugs and alcohol in his system, and court filings placed him at a bar a few blocks away shortly before the wreck. Dalby needed lumbar fusion surgery for a back injury her lawyers described as permanent, and she has not been able to return to work. She sued Hunt Oil and Crosson in Dallas County's 116th District Court, and an insurance company for Hunt Oil agreed to pay $30 million in late September 2024 with jury selection already underway.
What happened
On a Friday night in November 2019, Barbara Dalby was in her car on State Highway 191 in Odessa, Texas, a few blocks from Fast Eddie's Sports Tavern and Social Club, when a Ford F-150 owned by Hunt Oil Company crossed into her lane and struck her head on. Dalby was 53. She worked as a proposal specialist for a company that served law enforcement and military organizations, and she is a mother of three.
The truck was being driven by Mikeal Crosson, a Hunt Oil employee. According to court filings described in trial coverage, Crosson had been drinking at Fast Eddie's shortly before the wreck. Dalby's lawyers said he had both drugs and alcohol in his system when he drove into oncoming traffic, and that he had been drinking and using drugs with his Hunt Oil supervisor immediately beforehand. Hunt Oil rejected the claim that any of this was its responsibility.
The collision left Dalby with a back injury that required lumbar fusion surgery. Her lawyers said the injury is permanent, that she has continued to suffer chronic pain since the operation, and that she has not been able to return to work.
Dalby sued Hunt Oil Company and Crosson in the 116th Judicial District Court in Dallas County, case number DC-21-11344, before Judge Tonya Parker. Crosson moved to designate Fast Eddie's as a responsible third party and Judge Parker granted the motion; the bar had no lawyers listed in the case. Brent Goudarzi of Goudarzi & Young in Longview and Charla Aldous of Aldous \ Walker in Dallas represented Dalby. Hunt Oil was defended by William Toles of Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, Katherine Compton of Steptoe & Johnson and Scott Zimmer of Kelly, Hart & Hallman. Crosson was defended separately by Douglas Fletcher, Jeffrey Smith and Joseph Harrison of Fletcher, Farley, Shipman & Salinas.
The case settled in late September 2024, with jury selection already underway in Judge Parker's courtroom. An insurance company for Hunt Oil, which Goudarzi identified as Chubb, agreed to pay Dalby $30 million. Goudarzi called it the largest settlement he had tracked for an operated back injury. 'My thanks go out to the 54 potential jurors who showed up yesterday to fulfill their obligation to serve on a jury,' he said. 'This settlement on the eve of trial shows that our system of justice works when citizens are active and involved in jury duty.'
Hunt Oil disputed that it bore any responsibility. Toles said in a statement that Crosson was a former employee who caused the wreck 'acting on his own, outside of the work environment,' and that the resolution did not change the company's position. Toles said Hunt Oil terminated Crosson after it learned of the wreck.
The settlement ended the case before it reached a verdict. There was no jury award and no appeal.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.The Texas Lawbook (Krista Torralva, staff reporter), 2024-09-26: names Brent Goudarzi of Goudarzi & Young and Charla Aldous of Aldous \ Walker as Dalby's counsel, gives case number DC-21-11344 in the 116th District Court, Dallas County, before Judge Tonya Parker, the crash facts and court filings on Crosson's drinking, the lumbar fusion injury, the Chubb insurance settlement, the responsible-third-party designation of Fast Eddie's, and defense counsel with their firms
- 2.Midland Reporter-Telegram (B. Kay Richter, staff writer), published 2024-09-25 and updated 2024-09-26: confirms the $30 million amount, names Goudarzi and Aldous as Dalby's attorneys, quotes Hunt Oil counsel William Toles, dates the settlement to Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, and carries the editor's note that an insurance company rather than Hunt Oil agreed to pay
- 3.Odessa American reporting republished on Yahoo News, 2024-09-26: corroborates the $30 million settlement, the crash date and location, the driver's intoxication as alleged by the plaintiff, the lumbar fusion injury, and plaintiff's counsel
More proven verdicts from Goudarzi & Young, L.L.P.
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