Teen Passenger Left With a Brain Injury Wins $34.6 Million Against a Dump Truck Company
After trial: The Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals affirmed both verdicts in April 2019 but vacated the prejudgment interest award.
A Cuyahoga County jury awarded a combined $42.4 million in October 2014 to Joshua Rojas ($34.6 million) and Kiara Torres ($7.8 million), two teenage passengers who suffered brain injuries when the car they were riding in collided with a Concrete Designs Inc. dump truck; Andy Young, now of The Law Firm for Truck Safety, served as trial counsel, and in 2019 Ohio's Eighth District affirmed the verdicts while vacating a later prejudgment interest award.
What happened
In the early morning of November 15, 2010, around 5 a.m., a car driven by Jovanny Martinez collided with a dump truck on a Cleveland area road. Joshua Rojas rode in the front passenger seat. Kiara Torres, then 16, sat in the back. The truck was driven by Brian English for Concrete Designs Inc. Who caused the crash was contested from the start. Rojas and Torres alleged that English cut off Martinez's car while changing lanes. English claimed the car rear-ended his truck.
Both passengers were left with severe injuries. Torres suffered an open skull fracture with intracranial hemorrhaging and a frontal sinus fracture, and needed multiple operations. She is blind in her right eye, has a diminished sense of taste and smell, and lives with cognitive and behavioral limitations. A clinical neuropsychologist testified about her reduced capacity, and the appellate record describes an IQ of 67 and an inability to work or live independently. Rojas suffered a severe brain injury and spent time in a coma, according to trial testimony, and the parties treated his injuries as a permanent and substantial physical deformity under Ohio law.
The two filed separate lawsuits in 2012, which were consolidated in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. Trial began September 18, 2014. On October 14, 2014, the jury found English and Concrete Designs solely at fault, assigning no liability to Martinez. It returned separate verdicts for each plaintiff. Rojas received $8.2 million in economic damages and $26.4 million in noneconomic damages, a total of $34.6 million. Torres received $1.8 million in economic damages and $6 million in noneconomic damages, a total of $7.8 million. Together the awards came to $42.4 million.
The court record lists Andrew R. Young, then of Young & McCarthy LLP, among counsel for Rojas. Young, who now leads the Cleveland office of The Law Firm for Truck Safety, describes the case as a $42.4 million result won as lead trial counsel for two brain-injured teenagers, and counts it among the largest truck crash verdicts in Ohio.
The defense fought the awards for years. Defendants argued that Ohio's $350,000 cap on noneconomic damages should apply, that the awards were excessive, and that a new trial was warranted. The trial court denied those motions and in 2017 added prejudgment interest of about $2.59 million for Rojas and $954,603 for Torres. In Torres v. Concrete Designs, Inc., 2019-Ohio-1342, decided April 11, 2019 on reconsideration, the Eighth District Court of Appeals affirmed the verdicts in full. It held the damages were not excessive given the severity of the injuries, and that the statutory cap did not apply because Torres's injuries qualified as a permanent and substantial physical deformity and Rojas's were treated the same way. The court vacated only the prejudgment interest, finding the insurer had made good faith settlement efforts. At a settlement conference about six months before trial ended, that insurer had offered Rojas $100,000 and Torres $25,000.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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