Columbus Jury Awards $27 Million to Family of Army Veteran Killed by Turning Tractor-Trailer
Won by Shiver Hamilton Campbell, LLC.
Cindy Tran Huynh, a 22-year-old Army veteran riding her motorcycle through a green light in Columbus, Georgia, was killed on January 26, 2017 when a tractor-trailer driven by George Hooks for MDV SpartanNash turned left across her path. Hooks and MDV SpartanNash admitted the crash was entirely the driver's fault before trial, leaving a Muscogee County State Court jury to decide damages alone. On March 20, 2019, the jury awarded $27 million: $22 million for the full value of Huynh's life and $5 million for the pain and suffering she endured before she died. Alan Hamilton and Jeff Shiver of Shiver Hamilton represented the family, with Margaret Randels of the firm and Jim Roth of the Roth Firm also on the trial team.
What happened
Cindy Tran Huynh grew up in Buena Vista, Georgia, and enlisted in the Army after high school. Over four years of service she earned her paratrooper wings and a set of medals, then left the military to enroll in college, where she planned to study international relations. She was one week short of her 23rd birthday.
On January 26, 2017, Huynh was riding her 2009 Yamaha FZ6R motorcycle through an intersection in Columbus on a green light. George Hooks was driving a 2012 Freightliner Cascadia tractor-trailer for MDV SpartanNash, heading back to the company's terminal about half a mile away at the end of his shift. Hooks turned left directly into Huynh's lane. He did not see her. The truck struck her motorcycle, and Huynh was killed.
Huynh's mother sued MDV SpartanNash and Hooks in Muscogee County State Court. The company and its liability insurer, XL Insurance America Inc, did not contest fault: court filings stated that Hooks admitted the crash was 100 percent his responsibility. With liability conceded, the case went to trial before Judge Benjamin Richardson on damages alone, a posture that put the full focus on what Huynh's life and her final moments were worth.
The jury heard about her military service, her plans for college, and the seconds before the impact. On March 20, 2019, it returned a $27 million verdict: $22 million for the full value of her life and $5 million for the physical and mental suffering she experienced in the moments before she died. Alan Hamilton and Jeff Shiver of Shiver Hamilton tried the case for the family, joined by their associate Margaret Randels and by Jim Roth of the Roth Firm.
Georgia wrongful death law asks a jury to value the full value of the life of the decedent, a measure of what the life itself was worth rather than only what her survivors lost financially. That standard applied to the $22 million portion of the verdict, kept separate from the $5 million awarded for the pain Huynh suffered in the moments between the impact and her death. Because Hooks had already admitted fault before trial, the jury never had to weigh who caused the crash. Its only task was to put a number on a life cut short one week before a 23rd birthday.
No appellate decision in the case appears in Georgia’s appellate reporters, and no reduction of the award has been publicly reported. With liability already admitted and the verdict addressing damages a jury was empaneled specifically to weigh, the $27 million stands as the last publicly reported resolution of the case.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Daily Report (Law.com), Katheryn Tucker, March 25, 2019: staffed legal-trade article naming Huynh v. MDV Spartannash, No. SC17CV70, Muscogee County State Court, Judge Benjamin Richardson, the $22 million/$5 million split, the damages-only trial that began Monday and returned a verdict Wednesday, and plaintiffs' counsel Alan Hamilton, Jeff Shiver and Margaret Randels of Shiver Hamilton with Jim Roth of the Roth Firm
- 2.Yahoo syndication of the same Daily Report article, March 25, 2019: full text of the case number, judge, verdict breakdown and counsel, accessible without the Law.com paywall
- 3.Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 2019: crash date of January 26, 2017, driver George Hooks operating a 2012 Freightliner Cascadia for MDV SpartanNash, Hooks' admission that the crash was 100 percent his fault, and the $22 million/$5 million verdict breakdown
- 4.Shiver Hamilton Campbell, LLC (firm)
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