Ventura County Jury Sides With Painter Who Needed Neck Fusion After Company Van Made Illegal U-Turn

In March 2019, a painter was driving a newly bought Chevy truck in Ventura County when the GMC Savanna van ahead of him, owned by Oakwood Worldwide, appeared to be turning right onto a side street. The driver instead made an illegal U-turn. The plaintiff, Mullaly, had no room to stop, and his truck struck the rear driver-side panel of the van.

He went home after the crash and sought urgent care the next day for neck and back pain. Over the following years he went through chiropractic care, physical therapy, pain management and orthopedic treatment. In July 2023, four years after the collision, a new orthopedic evaluation found him to be a surgical candidate, and he underwent a cervical fusion at the C5-C6 level.

Oakwood Worldwide contested the case on liability and on medical causation. The defense argued that Mullaly was following too closely and too fast, and offered an accident reconstruction expert to say so. It also pointed to a history of football injuries, more than a decade of lower back problems, a visit to an orthopedic specialist three days before the crash for severe spinal pain, and an earlier cervical MRI showing a disc bulge and annular tear at the level that was later fused.

The plaintiff was represented by Elliott Jung and Emma Van Ginneken of HHJ Trial Attorneys, with Taylor Gaines of Batta Fulkerson as co-counsel. At trial, the defense life care planner, who had been retained to bring down the projected cost of future medical care, admitted on cross-examination that she had used ChatGPT and a hospital website chatbot to estimate costs. She also said defense counsel had advised her not to write a report, so the plaintiff's side never saw her analysis before she testified.

The jury deliberated for one day and returned a unanimous verdict of $10,024,171 in February 2025. That was $1.9 million for future economic damages, $1.3 million for past non-economic damages and $7 million for future non-economic damages. Gaines said afterward, in a social media post, that the jury was shown that Mullaly wanted to be a good father and husband and that his spine injury kept him from doing so.

The firm reports that the parties then resolved the case after the verdict for $7.5 million; court records and independent press do not confirm that figure. The independent coverage reviewed reports the verdict but not the terms of that resolution.