Idaho Jury's $3.51 Million Award for Teen Killed in Driver's Ed Crash Upheld Against Blaine County School District
After trial: The Idaho Supreme Court affirmed the full verdict on 30 March 2015 and denied rehearing on 23 April 2015, holding that the reckless-conduct finding kept the statutory cap on noneconomic damages from applying. The district's business manager said at the time of the verdict that its insurer would cover the judgment.
Won by Hepworth Law Office.
A 15-year-old boy died when a Blaine County School District driver-education car was struck during a three-point turn on U.S. Highway 20 near Carey in snow and fog. In 2013 a Blaine County jury found the instructor entirely at fault and reckless, and awarded the boy's parents about $3.51 million. The Idaho Supreme Court affirmed the verdict on 30 March 2015.
What happened
On the morning of 26 October 2010, a 15-year-old student from Carey was behind the wheel of a Blaine County School District driver-education car on U.S. Highway 20 west of Carey. The roads were snowy and slick, fog hung over the valley, and the light was poor. About half an hour into the lesson, the instructor, Jeffrey Mecham, told the boy to pull onto the highway shoulder and turn the car around so the two could switch seats. The maneuver was a three-point turnabout on a road with a 65 mph limit.
Mid-turn, the car was struck broadside by another vehicle. The student died at the scene. A classmate riding in the car suffered a broken hip that required surgery, and Mecham was seriously injured. The student's parents, Dennis and Maryann Hennefer, brought a wrongful death suit against the school district.
The case turned on what the district asked of an instructor and a young driver that morning. The boy had logged only about three hours of highway driving with an instructor. Mecham had been certified to teach driver's education that summer, was teaching the course for the first time, and had never taught in snow. He acknowledged he had been trained that three-point turns are hazardous and should be used rarely.
The case went to trial before Judge Robert J. Elgee in Blaine County in 2013. Jeffrey J. Hepworth of Jeffrey J. Hepworth, P.A. & Associates in Twin Falls represented the parents. In May 2013 the jury returned a unanimous special verdict. It assigned Mecham 100 percent of the responsibility for the crash and found his conduct reckless. It assigned no fault to the other driver and none to the student.
The jury awarded Dennis Hennefer about $7,500 in economic damages and $1.5 million in noneconomic damages, and Maryann Hennefer $2 million in noneconomic damages, for a total of about $3.51 million. The reckless-conduct finding mattered under Idaho law, because it took the claim outside the statutory limit that otherwise caps noneconomic damages in a personal injury or death case.
The district moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and for a new trial, and both motions were denied. It then appealed, challenging the jury instructions, the recklessness finding and the size of the award. The Idaho Supreme Court rejected each argument in an opinion issued 30 March 2015. Writing for the court, Justice Jones held that the evidence supported the verdict and that the cap on noneconomic damages did not apply because the conduct was reckless, and the court used the case to settle that recklessness in Idaho is judged by an objective standard. Rehearing was denied on 23 April 2015. At the time of the verdict, the district's business manager said its insurance carrier would cover the judgment.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Hennefer v. Blaine County School District #61, 158 Idaho 242, 346 P.3d 259 (Idaho Mar. 30, 2015)
- 2.Idaho News 6, 'Idaho Supreme Court upholds $3.5 million in wrongful death', Mar. 30, 2015·Archived copy
- 3.Insurance Journal, 'Idaho School Found Liable In Boy's Driver's Ed Death', May 6, 2013·Archived copy
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