$15.7 Million Federal Verdict for Parents of 21-Year-Old Killed at a Michigan Exit Ramp
After trial: Reversed by vacatur. Sources differ on the award ($15.7 million or $18.5 million), and after the May 24, 2023 judgment the defendants moved for a new trial or remittitur and the parties resolved the dispute privately, with a February 7, 2024 docket entry recording a vacatur.
A federal jury in Detroit held Crossfire, LLC and its driver Logan Goodrich responsible for the April 2018 crash that killed 21-year-old Dillon Montie at a US-23 exit ramp intersection in Monroe County, Michigan, and the court entered judgment on May 24, 2023. Law360 reported that Montie's parents were awarded more than $15.7 million; the plaintiff's firm and the news service of a trucking-lawyer membership group put the total verdict at $18.5 million, and the verdict form is not in the free public record. The defense had blamed Montie for speeding, but the trial judge had already struck its cell phone and roadway design defenses as unsupported and ruled that Crossfire would answer for Goodrich's negligence. Crossfire and Goodrich then moved for a new trial, remittitur, or a present cash value reduction, and Law360 reported in January 2024 that the parties resolved that dispute on terms that are not public, and the next docket entry, on February 7, 2024, is an order docketed as a vacatur, so no judgment figure from this case is confirmed to stand and the result is published unranked. No appeal was taken.
What happened
On the morning of April 27, 2018, Dillon Montie, 21, was driving east on Summerfield Road in Summerfield Township, Monroe County, Michigan, when his car collided with a Ford F-250 driven by Logan Goodrich at the intersection at the end of the Exit 9 ramp off northbound US-23. Goodrich had turned left onto Summerfield without yielding to oncoming traffic. Montie's car struck the side of the truck and he died of his injuries at the scene. Goodrich and his passenger survived.
Joseph Montie, as personal representative of his son's estate, sued Goodrich and Crossfire, LLC, Goodrich's employer at the time, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The complaint pleaded wrongful death and negligence against the driver, a survival claim, and both vicarious liability and direct negligence against the company. Michael Jay Leizerman of The Law Firm for Truck Safety, LLP and Peter C. Brown of the Gallagher Law Firm, PLC are the estate's counsel of record on the federal docket.
The defense case rested on blaming the young driver. Crossfire and Goodrich pleaded that Montie had been speeding, that he was on his cell phone, and that the road design obstructed the view from the ramp. In a November 30, 2020 opinion, Judge Stephanie Dawkins Davis struck the cell phone and roadway design defenses as unsupported by the record and held that if Goodrich were found negligent, Crossfire would be vicariously liable. She left the speed question for the jury. The defense accident reconstructionist put Montie at about 70 miles per hour on a road posted at 55, and opined that the collision would not have happened at the speed limit.
The case was tried before Judge Stephen J. Murphy III in Detroit in May 2023. The jury deliberated for roughly an hour and returned a unanimous verdict for the estate, and the court entered judgment and closed the case on May 24, 2023. Law360's report the following day said the parents had been awarded more than $15.7 million. The plaintiff's firm and TruckingNewsNow, the news service of the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys, a trucking-lawyer membership group, both put the total verdict at $18.5 million. The jury verdict form and the judgment are not available in the free public record, so the gap between the two figures cannot be closed from outside PACER.
Crossfire and Goodrich did not let the judgment stand unchallenged. On June 20, 2023 they moved for a new trial, for remittitur, or for a reduction of the award to its present cash value, arguing among other things that the plaintiff's presentation at trial had vilified the company. The estate opposed the motion, and both sides filed further briefing through that summer, including verdict forms from other wrongful death cases offered for comparison. In January 2024 Law360 reported that the parties had resolved the new trial dispute. The docket shows an order on the motion on January 19, 2024, followed by an entry on February 7, 2024 docketed as a vacatur. Neither the terms of the resolution nor a final judgment figure appears in the public record. Because the last entry on the docket is a vacatur following a private resolution, this directory treats the judgment as vacated by agreement and does not rank the verdict, the same rule it applies to every judgment set aside on a confidential settlement.
No appeal was taken to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Law360, Danielle Ferguson, May 25, 2023, 'Mich. Man's Estate Gets $16M After Jury Win Over Fatal Crash'
- 2.Law360, Carolyn Muyskens, July 11, 2023, 'Parents Fight To Keep $16M Semi-Truck Crash Verdict'
- 3.Law360, Jonathan Capriel, January 23, 2024, 'Parents, Transportation Co. Resolve $16M New-Trial Dispute'
- 4.CourtListener RECAP docket, Montie v. Crossfire, LLC, E.D. Mich. No. 2:19-cv-10455
- 5.Opinion and order on partial summary judgment, Nov. 30, 2020 (ECF No. 41), Montie v. Crossfire, LLC, via CourtListener RECAP
- 6.TruckingNewsNow.com, June 1, 2023·Archived copy
- 7.The Law Firm for Truck Safety LLP (firm)
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