Driver Left a Ventilator-Dependent Quadriplegic in a Stop Sign Crash Wins $21.36 Million Judgment
After trial: The New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division affirmed on January 3, 2011 (Docket No. A-6034-07T2). The appeal was taken by the plaintiff against Toyota, not by Tracy, so the molded $21,360,046.65 judgment against Tracy was never at risk on appeal and was not disturbed. The jury's defense verdict for Toyota on the airbag crashworthiness claim was also left standing. The Appellate Division was told at oral argument that McAlonan had died during the appeal. On collectability, the New Jersey Law Journal reported that Tracy carried only a minimum-limits auto policy, so the recovery available from her was a small fraction of the judgment; what McAlonan collected in total is not public record.
Won by Jarve Granato Starr, LLC.
James McAlonan was left a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic after Mildred Tracy drove through a stop sign in Harrison Township, New Jersey, and his Toyota Echo struck the side of her Ford Explorer. The trial judge granted McAlonan judgment against Tracy on negligence and proximate cause, the jury cleared codefendant Toyota on a companion airbag design claim, and the jury awarded $30,514,352.25. Because McAlonan was not wearing his seatbelt, the jury assigned him 30 percent comparative fault, and the court molded the verdict to a $21,360,046.65 judgment against Tracy. The Appellate Division affirmed in 2011, rejecting McAlonan's appeal of the defense verdict for Toyota. Mati Jarve, now of Jarve Granato Starr, tried and argued the case for McAlonan.
What happened
On October 24, 2004, James McAlonan was driving his 2003 Toyota Echo east on Ellis Mill Road in Harrison Township, Gloucester County, when Mildred Tracy drove her Ford Explorer south on Clems Run Road and failed to stop at the stop sign. The appellate opinion records that Tracy accelerated when she saw McAlonan's car approaching from her right. The front left of the Echo struck the right side of the Explorer, spinning the Echo roughly 270 degrees. The front airbags deployed, but McAlonan's head hit the windshield pillar.
The crash fractured his C5 through C7 vertebrae and caused permanent spinal cord damage that left him a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic with ongoing pulmonary complications. He entered a nursing home in July 2006 to try to get off the ventilator and moved in with his mother that December.
McAlonan sued Tracy for negligence and separately sued Toyota Motor Corporation and Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., arguing the Echo's airbag system was not crashworthy. His theory was that a safer alternative design existed and that Toyota's decision against a more powerful single-stage airbag or a dual-stage system enhanced his injuries. The case was tried to a Gloucester County jury over eighteen days. At the close of evidence the trial judge granted McAlonan judgment against Tracy on negligence and proximate cause, and sent damages and the airbag claim to the jury. The jury found for Toyota on the design claim.
On damages, the jury awarded $30,514,352.25. It also found McAlonan 30 percent comparatively negligent for not wearing his seatbelt. Applying that percentage, the judge molded the verdict and entered judgment for McAlonan against Tracy in the amount of $21,360,046.65.
It was McAlonan, not Tracy, who appealed. He challenged the trial judge's rulings on motions in limine, a set of evidentiary rulings and the jury instructions, including the admission of evidence that the Echo complied with the federal airbag standard, the handling of the consumer expectations test, the event data recorder readings, industry custom evidence and the seatbelt evidence. On January 3, 2011, the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, affirmed. The defense verdict for Toyota stood, and so did the molded judgment against Tracy. The court noted that it was advised at oral argument that McAlonan had died while the appeal was pending. Mati Jarve, then of Jarve Kaplan Granato in Marlton and now of Jarve Granato Starr, argued the cause for McAlonan, with Arizona attorney Larry E. Coben.
The size of the judgment was never the measure of what McAlonan recovered from Tracy. The New Jersey Law Journal reported at the time of the verdict that Tracy carried only a minimum-limits personal auto policy, so McAlonan stood to collect only a small fraction of the judgment from her. What he recovered in total, whether through underinsured motorist coverage or otherwise, is not part of the public record.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.FindLaw mirror of the full opinion in McAlonan v. Tracy, N.J. Super. App. Div., decided Jan. 3, 2011 (Docket A-6034-07T2): the accident facts and direction of impact, the injuries, the eighteen-day trial, the directed judgment against Tracy on negligence and proximate cause, the defense verdict for Toyota, the $30,514,352.25 verdict, the 30% seatbelt reduction, the molded $21,360,046.65 judgment, the affirmance, the plaintiff's death during the appeal, and the counsel block naming Mati Jarve of Jarve Kaplan Granato and Larry E. Coben for plaintiff
- 2.Justia mirror of the same unpublished Appellate Division opinion (A-6034-07), corroborating the verdict amount, the 30% comparative negligence finding for seatbelt non-use, the molded judgment, the Gloucester County venue and Mati Jarve as counsel who argued for the plaintiff
- 3.New Jersey Law Journal 'Suits & Deals' verdict column (Law.com Staff, July 2008): contemporaneous report that a Gloucester County jury awarded $30.5 million on July 1 and that the award was cut to $21 million for seatbelt non-use, naming Mati Jarve of Jarve Kaplan Granato in Marlton as McAlonan's attorney, describing the collision, and reporting that the defendant carried only a minimum-limits policy so the plaintiff would collect a small fraction
- 4.Jarve Granato Starr, LLC (firm)
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