Newton County Jury Awards Indiana Farmer $30 Million After Semi Hits His Tractor on U.S. 41
After trial: Counsel told The Times of Northwest Indiana that insurance would cover the verdict amount, which is the only public indication of payment; no satisfaction of judgment is available in an online record we could reach. No appeal of the verdict appears in Indiana appellate records and no appellate decision in the case has been published.
Won by Schafer & Schafer LLP.
Daniel Nelson, a farmer from Lake Village, Indiana, was driving his tractor north on U.S. 41 in Newton County on the morning of May 16, 2019, when a semitrailer that failed to slow down or change lanes struck it and threw him from the seat. He suffered head and brain injuries, a fractured pelvis and five broken ribs. Nelson and his wife, Diana, sued the trucking company, its customer and the driver, and after the case bounced between federal and state court on jurisdictional grounds, it was tried over seven days in Newton County Superior Court. On February 16, 2022, the jury deliberated about two and a half hours before awarding $25 million to Daniel Nelson and $5 million to Diana Nelson, a $30 million verdict that stood.
What happened
Daniel Nelson farmed near Lake Village, in the flat, open stretch of northwest Indiana where U.S. 41 runs past miles of cropland. On the morning of May 16, 2019, he was driving an International Harvester farm tractor northbound on that highway in Newton County, on a stretch about a quarter mile south of the Kankakee River and north of County Road 1150 North. Police were notified of the crash at 7:35 a.m. Their initial investigation found that a 2017 Mack semitrailer, also northbound and driven by a 35-year-old man from Orland Park, Illinois, failed to slow down or move into the left lane to avoid the slow-moving tractor and struck it. Nelson, who was 51, was thrown from the tractor and taken to Riverside Hospital.
He suffered head and brain injuries, a fractured pelvis and five broken ribs. He has since gone back to farming and mechanical work.
Nelson and his wife, Diana, sued Diversified Logistics Services, Inc., Liberty Tire Service of Ohio, LLC, and the driver, Jorge Diaz. The argument was a simple one: a commercial driver on a rural highway where farm equipment is a routine sight has to see a tractor ahead of him and slow down.
The case took a long road to trial. The Nelsons filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana in November 2019, and Judge Theresa Springmann ordered them to file a supplemental jurisdictional statement properly alleging the citizenship of the two company defendants. That federal suit was dismissed, and the case went forward in Newton County Superior Court under cause number 56D01-1911-CT-1189. Liberty Tire removed it to federal court again in June 2020, and on July 10, 2020, Judge Springmann granted the Nelsons' motion to remand and sent the case back to Newton County, where it stayed through trial.
Todd Schafer and Tim Schafer II of Merrillville represented the Nelsons, and Todd S. Schafer appears as their counsel of record on the federal docket. Trial ran seven days, starting February 7, 2022, before Newton County Superior Court Judge Daniel Molter.
On February 16, 2022, the jury deliberated about two and a half hours and returned a $30 million verdict: $25 million to Daniel Nelson and another $5 million to Diana Nelson. "We always thought that this was what this case was worth," Todd Schafer told The Times of Northwest Indiana afterward, adding that he believed the size of the verdict showed jurors place a high value on life and health.
Schafer also said insurance would cover the verdict amount. No appeal turned up in Indiana appellate records and no appellate decision in the case has been published. The $30 million stood.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.The Times of Northwest Indiana (staff reporter Bob Kasarda), Feb. 16, 2022: the $30 million verdict and its $25 million / $5 million split, the roughly two-and-a-half-hour deliberation, the seven-day trial starting Feb. 7 before Newton County Superior Court Judge Daniel Molter, Nelson's head and brain injuries, pelvic fracture and five broken ribs, his return to farming, the statement that insurance would cover the verdict, and the identification of Todd Schafer and Tim Schafer II of Merrillville as the Nelsons' attorneys
- 2.The Times of Northwest Indiana (Bob Kasarda), May 17, 2019: spot news on the crash itself, giving the 7:35 a.m. report time, the U.S. 41 location north of County Road 1150 North, the 2017 Mack semitrailer and its Orland Park driver failing to slow or move to the left lane, the International Harvester tractor, and Daniel Nelson, 51, of Lake Village being thrown from the tractor and taken to Riverside Hospital
- 3.CourtListener/RECAP docket, Nelson v. Diversified Logistics Services, Inc., No. 4:20-cv-00044 (N.D. Ind.): the caption and parties (Daniel and Diana Nelson v. Diversified Logistics Services, Jorge Diaz, Liberty Tire Service of Ohio), the underlying Newton County Superior Court cause number 56D01-1911-CT-1189, Liberty Tire's June 2020 removal, the July 10, 2020 order remanding the case to Newton County, and Todd S. Schafer as counsel of record filing for the Nelsons
- 4.CourtListener/RECAP docket, Nelson v. Diversified Logistics Services, Inc., No. 2:19-cv-00434 (N.D. Ind.): the Nelsons' original November 2019 federal filing, the court's order for a supplemental jurisdictional statement on the citizenship of Liberty Tire Service of Ohio, LLC and Diversified Logistics Services, and the dismissal of that first federal case
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