Alabama Jury Awards $3.7 Million After Drunk Driver Killed Unborn Daughter Seven Weeks Before Birth
A Jefferson County jury awarded $3.7 million to Tiffany Horton after a drunk driver crossed the median on Highway 280 and killed her unborn daughter Adley in a head-on crash, in what attorneys described as possibly the first Alabama jury verdict treating an unborn child as a wrongful-death victim.
What happened
On the evening of March 7, 2016, Irwin Francisco-Bartolo, 21, left a friend's house in Mountain Brook after drinking eight beers in roughly two hours. He climbed behind the wheel of a 2004 Chevrolet Blazer he was not insured to drive, crossed the median on Highway 280, and struck Tiffany Horton's 2011 Toyota Camry head-on at approximately 7:02 p.m.
Horton was 33 weeks pregnant with her first child, a daughter she and her husband had named Adley. Firefighters had to extract her from the vehicle. She was rushed to UAB Hospital with serious injuries including broken bones. Her seat belt may have saved her own life but transmitted severe force to her unborn child. Adley did not survive.
The criminal case resolved first. A judge sentenced Francisco-Bartolo to 18 years in prison for the manslaughter of Adley Horton. At sentencing, Tiffany Horton read a letter of loss to the court, addressing what the crash had taken from her family.
The civil wrongful-death case went to a Jefferson County jury in late April 2022, six years after the crash. The trial lasted three days before Circuit Court Judge Tamara Harris Johnson. Plaintiff attorneys James R. 'Jamie' Moncus III and his team at Minner Vines Moncus Injury Lawyers asked the jury to treat Adley as a living human being whose life had independent value, even though she had not yet drawn her first breath.
On April 21, 2022, all twelve jurors agreed. The unanimous verdict awarded Tiffany Horton $3.7 million. Moncus noted afterward that the jury 'followed the law and treated Adley Horton as a living human being, even though she was not yet born,' and that no other child could ever replace what Adley meant to the family. The Daily Report, covering the verdict in May 2022, described it as a record recovery and noted it may be the first time an Alabama jury had ruled in favor of an unborn child in a wrongful-death suit.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Law.com / Daily Report: 'A Record Verdict': Birmingham Jury Awards $3.7M in Rare Case Where Unborn Baby Is Recognized as Living (May 2022)·Archived copy
- 2.WBRC Fox 6 News Birmingham: Man charged in wreck that hurt pregnant woman, killed unborn baby (2016)·Archived copy
- 3.CBS 42 Birmingham: Tiffany Horton reads emotional letter of loss at sentencing of Irwin Francisco-Bartolo·Archived copy
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