Madison County Jury Awards $241 Million to Family of Courier Killed by Dry Ice Fumes in Car
After trial: After the verdict, Prairie Farms entered a settlement with the Johnson family and assigned its rights against insurer Travelers to the widow, who sued Travelers in federal court in March 2026. The settlement terms are not public, and we could not confirm what amount was ultimately paid or whether any appeal was filed.
Won by Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C..
Eric Johnson, a 64-year-old Missouri courier, lost consciousness and later died after carbon dioxide from dry ice-packed strawberries filled his subcompact car in 2016. His widow sued Prairie Farms Dairy for failing to warn or train him. A Madison County jury awarded $49.5 million in compensatory and $191.5 million in punitive damages in February 2026. Prairie Farms later settled with the family after the verdict.
What happened
A Madison County, Illinois jury returned a $241 million verdict on February 27, 2026, for the family of Eric Johnson, a 64-year-old courier from Manchester, Missouri, who died after carbon dioxide from dry ice filled the small car he was driving. The award was $49.5 million in compensatory damages and $191.5 million in punitive damages against Prairie Farms Dairy and its related defendants.
Johnson owned a courier service, CJS Express. In August 2016 he took on a delivery of several crates of strawberries packed in dry ice, bound from St. Charles, Missouri, to a frozen custard stand in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He was found unconscious in his vehicle in St. Charles and died days later in the hospital. The family's case was that the dry ice turned to carbon dioxide gas inside a subcompact car, and that the gas caused him to lose consciousness.
His wife, Paula Johnson, administrator of his estate, sued in November 2017. The defendants were Prairie Farms Dairy Inc., its subsidiary PFD Supply Corp., and three PFD Supply employees. The complaint alleged that people at the company understood the hazards of moving dry ice in a confined space without ventilation and never warned Johnson. After the verdict, family attorney Patrick Salvi II said Prairie Farms never ensured training, written protocols or warnings reached Johnson, and called his death entirely preventable.
The Johnsons had been married 42 years and had five adult children, two of them disabled and dependent on him for daily support. After his death, Paula Johnson closed her sewing business to run CJS Express and care for those two children.
Opening statements began February 19 before Circuit Judge Dennis Ruth, and the case went to the jury on February 26. Jurors deliberated about five hours that day, came back the next morning, and reached a verdict after roughly another hour. Prairie Farms was represented by HeplerBroom LLC. The family was represented by Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard, with Patrick A. Salvi II as lead trial attorney.
The case did not end at the verdict. According to the Madison-St. Clair Record, Prairie Farms and the Johnson family entered a post-verdict settlement under which Paula Johnson received an assignment of Prairie Farms' rights against its insurer, Travelers. On March 31, 2026, she filed suit against Travelers in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, alleging the insurer refused reasonable settlement opportunities over roughly ten years.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.The Telegraph (Alton), 'Prairie Farms hit with $241M verdict in wrongful death suit', 2026·Archived copy
- 2.Madison-St. Clair Record, 'Jury: Prairie Farms must pay Missouri family $241M over dry ice death', 2026·Archived copy
- 3.Madison-St. Clair Record, 'After $241M verdict vs Prairie Farms, Travelers sued for bad faith', April 2026·Archived copy
- 4.FOX 32 Chicago, 'Insurance company sued over failure to settle wrongful death case', 2026·Archived copy
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