$5 Million Settlement for Family of 35-Year-Old Mother Killed by Moving-Truck Driver Who Ran a Red Light
Three families whose relative died when a Two Men and a Truck driver ran a red light in Weldon Spring, Missouri recovered $5 million from the franchise owner, J&C Enterprises Inc., in a wrongful death settlement reached in August 2022.
What happened
On the morning of July 16, 2021, Santina Woodall, 35, was turning left from southbound Wolfrum Road onto eastbound Missouri Highway 94 in Weldon Spring when a commercial moving truck operated by Geoffrey Cosmas Seebeck III entered the intersection against a red light and struck her vehicle. The collision killed Woodall at the scene. She was a mother of two.
Seebeck worked for J&C Enterprises Inc., a Sunset Hills-based company that owns and operates a Two Men and a Truck franchise. At least two other drivers and a witness confirmed that the truck had run the red light. Plaintiffs' lawyers later argued that J&C Enterprises intentionally kept its moving trucks just below the weight threshold that would require drivers to hold a commercial driver's license, a practice they contended allowed the company to avoid CDL training requirements and federal safety standards that apply to heavier vehicles.
Three separate wrongful death actions were filed in St. Charles County Circuit Court, case no. 2111-CC00632, on behalf of different family members of Woodall. Joshua Myers of Schultz and Myers represented Woodall's parents, Linda and Wendell Woodall, in their claim. Craig Ortwerth of Ortwerth Law and Timothy Philipp of Timothy P. Philipp PC represented two other plaintiff groups. J&C Enterprises and Seebeck were defended by Kevin Fritz and Daniel Mannion of Lashly and Baer.
The three cases settled together on August 24, 2022, for a combined $5 million. Presiding Judge W. Christopher McDonough oversaw the proceedings in St. Charles County Circuit Court. Missouri Lawyers Weekly covered the settlement in a January 2023 article by reporter Alan Scher Zagier, and the result was also included in the publication's annual ranking of the top plaintiff wins in Missouri for 2022, where it placed 30th.
No appeal is at issue, as the matter resolved by settlement before trial.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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