Lauderdale County Jury Awards Widower $9 Million After Road Crew's Sign Hid a Truck From His Wife
After trial: We found no post-trial order, remittitur or appeal in the court records searched, so the verdict appears to stand as returned. Whether the judgment has been paid is not public.
Won by Marsh, Rickard & Bryan.
Margaret Green was killed on July 15, 2015, when a tractor-trailer struck her SUV as she pulled out of her driveway onto Alabama Highway 64. Her husband, Herschel Green, sued the road contractor, Joe Keenum Excavation & Construction Inc., over a movable construction sign it had placed beside the driveway. In February 2022 a Lauderdale County jury found the company responsible and awarded $9 million.
What happened
On July 15, 2015, Margaret Green was pulling out of her own driveway and onto Alabama Highway 64 in Lauderdale County when a tractor-trailer struck the driver's side of her SUV. She died in the collision.
Joe Keenum Excavation & Construction Inc. was doing road work near the Green home and was responsible for temporary traffic control in the area. Her husband, Herschel Green, brought a wrongful death suit alleging that the company's movable construction sign, set at roadway level right beside the driveway, blocked Margaret's view of oncoming traffic. She never saw the truck.
The evidence at trial centered on that sign. There was testimony that Keenum was working at the other end of the paving project that day, so no work was going on near the Green driveway and the sign should not have been up at all. Other testimony was that if a sign had been needed there, it should have been raised off the ground or placed somewhere else. A local police chief testified that, in his opinion, the sign would have obstructed Margaret's view of the highway. The company's defense was that she should have pulled farther out around the sign and into the roadway. A signage subcontractor that had also been sued settled before trial.
The case was tried in Lauderdale County Circuit Court in Florence in February 2022 and lasted about ten days. Rip Andrews and Ty Brown of Marsh, Rickard & Bryan represented Herschel Green, and Steve Burford represented the company. The plaintiff's side put it plainly: Keenum put a temporary construction sign where it should not have been, left it up when it should not have been and set it up in a way it should not have been set up.
The jury deliberated for about four hours before returning a verdict of $9 million for Herschel Green against Joe Keenum Excavation & Construction Inc.
We found no reported post-trial ruling, remittitur or appeal in the Alabama appellate or federal court records we searched, and no public report of payment.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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