Los Angeles Jury Holds Property Manager Liable for Employee's Drunk-Driving Crash, $15 Million Verdict Reduced to $12.02 Million
After trial: The jury awarded $15,030,718.83 and found the plaintiff 20 percent at fault, leaving $12,024,575.06. We found no appellate decision and could not confirm whether the judgment was appealed or paid.
Won by Greene Broillet & Wheeler.
A Los Angeles jury found FirstService Residential California LLC vicariously liable for a crash caused by its drunk general manager on State Route 134 in 2013. The passenger's right arm was nearly severed and required about 30 surgeries. The jury set damages at $15,030,718.83 and found the passenger 20 percent at fault, so $12,024,575.06 stood against the company.
What happened
On the night of March 17, 2013, Tomislav George, a 47-year-old plastics-company executive and volunteer vice president of a homeowners association board, rode home from a restaurant in Southern California with Lance Sandman, a general manager at FirstService Residential California LLC. Both men had been drinking. On State Route 134, Sandman rear-ended a Nissan, and his car rolled over. Sandman was arrested and later convicted of driving under the influence causing great bodily injury.
George's right arm was nearly severed. Surgeons had to graft muscle from his back to save it, and over the following years he went through about 30 surgeries. He also claimed a traumatic brain injury, along with cognitive and emotional difficulties, back pain from complications of the surgeries, and trouble walking. His executive job involved some physical work and property inspections, and he was demoted after the crash.
George sued FirstService Residential, Sandman's employer, in Los Angeles Superior Court. His lawyers, Bruce Broillet and Alan L. Van Gelder of Greene Broillet & Wheeler, argued that Sandman was acting within the scope of his job, which included entertaining clients and organizing company events, and that the company's policies on driving, client entertainment and alcohol were ambiguous and inadequate. They also argued the company was negligent in hiring and retaining him: Sandman had been convicted of DUI and had his license suspended within six months of being hired, and the company never learned of it because it ignored red flags in his background check.
FirstService Residential's lawyers, Maria K. Plese and Gary L. Hoffman, answered that Sandman and George were personal friends with a long habit of social drinking, which George largely started, and that the outing was not company business. Other board members described Sandman as an exemplary property manager. The defense also pointed to George's own intoxication, with a blood-alcohol level between .11 and .13 before he got into the car.
The case was tried over about four weeks before Judge Victor E. Chavez and ended on March 22, 2017, after the jury deliberated for a day and a half. Two other people hurt in the crash had settled before trial, and George had settled with Sandman after Sandman's insurer tendered its policy limits, so only his claim against the employer went to the jury.
The jury found FirstService Residential vicariously liable and set George's total damages at $15,030,718.83: $926,288 in past medical costs, $1,028,782 in future medical costs, $75,649 in past lost earning capacity, $1,500,000 in future lost earning capacity, $4,000,000 in past pain and suffering and $7,500,000 in future pain and suffering. It assigned 20 percent of the fault to George and 80 percent to the company, which reduced the judgment to $12,024,575.06.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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