Estate of Woman Killed by Distracted Driver Who Ran Stop Sign Settles for $4 Million in North Carolina
After trial: The settlement was reached at mediation in April 2021 and was not appealed. The court, the parties and defense counsel were withheld under a confidentiality agreement, so no court record could be confirmed and whether the amount was paid is not public.
A 47-year-old North Carolina woman was killed when a distracted driver ran a stop sign and broadsided her minivan. Her seatbelt failed and she was ejected. After the insurer contested fault, her estate settled at mediation in April 2021 for $4 million. The court and parties were withheld under a confidentiality agreement.
What happened
In April 2021, the estate of a 47-year-old North Carolina woman settled its wrongful death claim for $4 million. She had been killed in a crash caused by a driver who ran a stop sign. The court and the parties were withheld under a confidentiality agreement, so the case is known only through the accounts of the lawyers who handled it and the trade press that reported it.
The woman worked full time at a daycare and also substituted as an elementary school teacher. On the day of the crash she was driving her minivan to the store and getting ready to host her young grandchildren for the weekend. At an intersection, another driver went through a stop sign and struck the side of her van.
The collision was severe, and her seatbelt failed on impact. She was thrown from the minivan and landed on a nearby utility pole. She was taken to a hospital and died soon after she arrived.
Liability was contested. According to the plaintiffs' lawyers, the defendant's insurer argued that she should have seen the other driver coming, even though the responding officers and an inspection of the crash site pointed the other way. The insurer also denied the driver had been distracted, despite numerous social media posts suggesting otherwise. A further argument held that traces of a prescribed painkiller in her system contributed to the collision. Danny Dalton, one of the family's attorneys, told North Carolina Lawyers Weekly that the most frustrating part of the case was watching the family relive their loss each time the insurer came back with a new argument.
The claim was resolved at mediation before Michael McDaniel and reached $4 million that April, without a trial, so no jury ever weighed the insurer's arguments. Brian Mickelsen and Danny Dalton of Mickelsen Dalton, based in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, represented the estate. Walter Wood of the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin, who was then working from the firm's Durham, North Carolina office, served as co-counsel.
North Carolina Lawyers Weekly reported the settlement in September 2021 and again listed it among the state's top verdicts and settlements of 2021. Defense counsel was not identified in either account.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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