Federal Jury Finds Box-Truck Driver and Employer Liable for Illegal Pass on GA-44 That Injured Woman, 81

On November 4, 2020, Michael Turner, a driver for Latium USA Trading LLC (doing business as Superior Mason Products), was following a large tractor on Georgia Highway 44 in Putnam County. He crossed the double yellow lines to pass it and entered the oncoming lane. A driver coming toward him, Hunter Willis, moved to the edge of his lane to avoid a head-on collision, and Judith Fielder, who was behind Willis, slowed and shifted as well. Her car struck Willis's vehicle, crossed the opposite lane, left the road and hit trees on the embankment. Her husband, William Fielder, was a passenger.

Turner did not stop. Officers stopped him in Gray, in Jones County, nearly 14 miles away, and cited him for passing in a no-passing zone. He did not appear for his court date, a bench warrant issued, and he pleaded guilty in absentia in January 2022, after Latium hired a lawyer for him.

Mrs. Fielder, then 81 and from Eatonton, was hospitalized for 45 days. Her injuries included multiple broken ribs, a fractured sternum and a broken arm that each needed fixation surgery, a spinal compression fracture that also required surgery, a cracked kneecap, a fractured humeral head and a pulmonary embolism. She continues to live with pain and reduced mobility.

The Fielders sued in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia in Macon in December 2021, with Jed Manton of Harris Lowry Manton LLP as their counsel. The case turned in part on missing records. In December 2022, Judge Tilman E. Self III found that Latium had failed to preserve Turner's electronic logs, trip documents and post-accident drug test results, described a pattern of evasion in discovery, and ordered an adverse jury instruction as a sanction. He also let the claims for punitive damages and litigation expenses go to trial.

The jury heard the case from February 27 to March 3, 2023, in two phases. In the first, it awarded Mrs. Fielder $4,765,000 for past and future medical expenses and non-economic damages, and Mr. Fielder $250,000 for loss of consortium. It assigned fault 60 percent to Latium, 30 percent to Turner and 10 percent to Mrs. Fielder, and found that Turner acted in bad faith. In the second phase it added $20 million in punitive damages and $1,880,400 for attorneys' fees and litigation costs, for a verdict of $26,895,400.

Georgia caps most punitive awards at $250,000, and the court reduced that part of the verdict to the cap over the Fielders' objection to its constitutionality, which was preserved. The 10 percent share of fault trimmed Mrs. Fielder's compensatory award, and prejudgment interest of $565,070 was added because the Fielders had made a pre-suit demand that was rejected. On March 10, 2023, the court entered judgment of $7,208,970 against Turner, Latium and United States Fire Insurance Company, which is directly liable under Georgia law, with Latium having admitted responsibility for any judgment against its driver.