Tim Newsom

A Dallas County jury awarded the family of Christopher Ray Vardy $44.1 million after finding New Prime Inc. and its driver, Steven Ridder, responsible for the February 2021 ice-storm pileup that killed him on the Interstate 35W toll lanes near Fort Worth. The verdict included $24.1 million in compensatory damages, apportioned 75 percent to Ridder and 25 percent to toll-road operator NTE Express, plus $20 million in punitive damages against New Prime for recklessly employing an unfit driver. The Law Offices of Frank L. Branson, P.C. represented Vardy's widow, Tamara Vardy, and the firm says John Burkhead, Tim Newsom and Debbie Dudley Branson tried the case. Days after the verdict New Prime moved for a take-nothing judgment, arguing settlement credits and Texas's exemplary-damages cap should erase the award, a motion with no reported ruling as of September 2026.

A Dallas County jury awarded $9.45 million to James Shelton McClure, 74, after he stepped into an unlit, drained fountain basin in the courtyard of Hotel Crescent Court while walking his dog just after midnight on March 6, 2021. McClure and his wife were staying at the hotel because Winter Storm Uri had knocked out power at their own home. The fall broke his ankle, requiring four surgeries and an eventual total ankle replacement, and aggravated a preexisting neck condition that left him with nerve damage in his dominant hand. After a weeklong trial, the jury found the hotel 95 percent responsible and McClure 5 percent responsible. Tim Newsom of The Law Offices of Frank L. Branson, P.C. led the trial team, with Debbie Dudley Branson and Linda Yee Villa. The trial court signed judgment on the verdict in September 2025, and the hotel operators appealed; the appeal is pending.