Cook County Jury Returns $2.4 Million Verdict Against City of Chicago for Pedestrian Hit by Drunk City Worker
Won by Levin & Perconti.
On May 21, 2011, a City of Chicago Streets and Sanitation worker driving a city pickup truck left the road and struck several people on a Gold Coast sidewalk, including 27-year-old Stephen Dewart. The driver's blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit. After a five-day damages trial in September 2013, a Cook County jury awarded Dewart $2.4 million in under two hours.
What happened
On May 21, 2011, Stephen Dewart was on a sidewalk at the corner of Rush and Cedar streets in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood. He was 27 years old and was there for a photo shoot connected to his wife's company. A city-owned pickup truck driven by Dwight Washington, a 61-year-old worker with the Department of Streets and Sanitation, left the roadway and struck Dewart along with several other pedestrians.
Washington's blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit, and police found an open bottle of brandy in the truck. He was charged with aggravated DUI, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Dewart was taken to the hospital and stayed six days. He had multiple spinal fractures and fractures in his leg, including the tibia and fibula. Surgeons placed a rod in his lower right leg, and he went through two more surgeries and months of physical therapy. He used a wheelchair for a time, and the injuries pushed back his start at law school by a year. Because Washington was on duty in a city vehicle, the city answered for the crash.
Dewart sued Washington and the City of Chicago in the Circuit Court of Cook County. Before trial, both defendants admitted they were fully responsible for the crash, so the jury was asked only to decide what Dewart's injuries were worth. Susan L. Novosad and Jordan S. Powell of Levin & Perconti represented him, according to Patch's report on the verdict.
The damages trial lasted five days before Judge Gregory J. Wojkowski. On Friday, September 20, 2013, the jury deliberated for less than two hours and returned a verdict of $2.4 million for Dewart. Illinois had no cap on compensatory damages in personal injury cases at the time.
Dewart was one of several people hurt in the crash. The City Council had already approved a multimillion-dollar settlement in 2012 for another victim, a computer scientist who suffered a traumatic brain injury. After the verdict, Dewart said the award would not erase the injuries he had experienced and continued to experience, but that it would help provide financial stability for him and his family.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Patch (Beverly, IL), '$2.4 Million Verdict for Young Man Run Down by City Worker', Sept. 23, 2013·Archived copy
- 2.ABC7 Chicago, '$2.4M settlement in city worker DUI crash', Sept. 23, 2013·Archived copy
- 3.CBS Chicago, 'Man Hit By Streets & Sanitation Driver Files Suit Against City', June 6, 2011·Archived copy
- 4.Levin & Perconti (firm)·Archived copy
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