$30.1 Million TBI Verdict After Insurer Refused to Settle
Won by Swope Rodante PA.
A Hillsborough County jury awarded $30.1 million to a passenger left with a permanent brain injury after the truck driver's insurer refused to offer more than its $100,000 policy limit, a verdict the Florida Supreme Court unanimously preserved in 2023.
What happened
On November 2, 2012, Randy Willoughby was riding as a passenger when a Chevrolet Silverado T-boned the car he was in. The truck was owned by Eddie Ellison and his wife Alberta and insured by GEICO under a $100,000 liability policy. The collision left Willoughby in a coma for roughly a month. He emerged with a debilitating brain injury from which he had not fully recovered by the time his case reached trial.
Willoughby first pursued his own uninsured motorist carrier, 21st Century Centennial Insurance Company, for UM benefits and bad faith. Two years into litigation he settled that claim for $4 million. He then proceeded to trial against the Ellisons in Hillsborough County Circuit Court, with Brent Steinberg, Brandon Cathey, and Daniel Greene of Swope, Rodante P.A. presenting his case.
The jury awarded $30,101,599, covering future medical expenses, lost earnings both past and future, and past and future pain and suffering. The trial judge, Ralph C. Stoddard, refused to reduce the verdict by the $4 million the plaintiff had already received from 21st Century, and the defendants appealed.
Florida's Second District Court of Appeal affirmed the denial of any setoff. The court reasoned that because 21st Century was not a joint tortfeasor with the Ellisons, the statutory setoff provisions had no application. Defendants then sought review in the Florida Supreme Court, arguing the $4 million payment was a 'collateral source' that should reduce the judgment.
On November 2, 2023, the Florida Supreme Court ruled 6-0 against the defendants. The court held that a bad faith settlement paid by a UM carrier functions as a penalty on the insurer, not a benefit to the plaintiff, and therefore falls outside the collateral-source rule. The $30.1 million verdict remained intact with no offset.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Claims Journal: Fla. Supreme Ct. Rejects Offset from Jury Award for $4M Paid to Settle Bad Faith Claims (Jim Sams, Nov. 3, 2023)·Archived copy
- 2.FindLaw: Alberta Ellison v. Randy Willoughby, Fla. Supreme Court No. SC2021-1580 (Nov. 2, 2023)·Archived copy
- 3.vLex: Ellison v. Willoughby, 326 So. 3d 214 (Fla. 2d DCA June 11, 2021)·Archived copy
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