San Antonio Jury Awards Over $1 Million After Parking Lot Collision, Later Reversed on Appeal

In late August 2018, Brenda Steele and her adult daughter Sierrah Walters were driving through a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio on their way to buy groceries for a family dinner. The lot's access road curved and had no painted center line. As Steele's car and an oncoming pickup driven by Eric Garcia, an employee of Martin Marietta Materials Southwest, passed one another, the two vehicles made contact and the taillight on Steele's car was broken.

Steele's back and neck problems worsened steadily after the crash. In the years that followed she underwent a lumbar laminectomy and discectomy performed by Dr. Michael Leonard. By the time her case went to trial in March 2024, she was scheduled for a lumbar interbody fusion at L4-L5 and a later cervical discectomy and artificial disc replacement at C5-C6, both to be performed by orthopedic spine surgeon Dr. Frank Kuwamura. She testified to daily pain she rated at four or five out of ten, sometimes higher, wore a TENS unit during trial, carried a handicap placard, and had stepped back from client work as a realtor into a broker role. Her husband, her son, her daughter, and a neighbor described her giving up hiking, cycling, and volunteering with her children's ROTC unit.

The case went to trial in the 37th Judicial District Court in Bexar County before Judge Nicole Garza. Garcia testified repeatedly that he had stayed in his own lane, which carried the implication that Steele had not stayed in hers. Steele's side pointed to a photograph she took of the debris at the scene, including pieces of her broken taillight, and argued it placed the contact on her side of the road. At the close of evidence, the trial court granted a directed verdict removing the question of Steele's own possible fault from the jury altogether.

On March 25, 2024, the jury found Garcia and Martin Marietta negligent and awarded Steele $1,052,500 by a vote of 10 to 2: $575,000 for future medical care, $225,000 combined for past and future pain and suffering, $125,000 combined for past and future mental anguish, $120,000 combined for past and future physical impairment, and $7,500 combined for past and future disfigurement. Walters, who was riding in the car, received a separate and far smaller award for her own past pain, mental anguish, and impairment. The trial court signed judgment on the verdict on April 30, 2024.

Garcia and Martin Marietta appealed, and on April 29, 2026, the Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio reversed the judgment and sent the case back for a new trial. The panel held that Garcia's testimony that he stayed in his own lane was more than a scintilla of evidence that Steele may have left hers, and that where the two drivers' accounts conflict, the jury rather than the judge has to weigh their credibility and answer the comparative negligence question.

Both sides filed motions for rehearing in May 2026, and further briefing followed in June. As of this writing, the Fourth Court of Appeals has not ruled on those motions, the reversal is not yet final, and the case has not been retried.