Top Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements of 2003

Monsanto and Solutia Pay $700 Million to Settle Decades of PCB Poisoning in Anniston, Alabama

Monsanto and its chemical spinoff Solutia agreed in August 2003 to pay $700 million to resolve claims from more than 21,000 Anniston, Alabama residents who were exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls the company manufactured and dumped near their homes for nearly four decades.

Alaska Airlines Flight 261: Confidential Settlements for 18 Families in $300 Million-Plus Litigation

Jamie Lebovitz served on the federal MDL Plaintiff's Steering Committee for the Alaska Airlines Flight 261 disaster, representing 18 families in confidential individual settlements as part of a broader litigation that recovered more than $300 million for surviving relatives of the 88 people killed.

Shunt Failure Left Boy Severely Brain-Damaged. Kramer Dillof Won a $50 Million Verdict Against New York Hospital.

When a shunt revision at New York Hospital failed and went unaddressed in 1990, Samuel Desiderio suffered catastrophic brain damage; a jury awarded roughly $50 million and New York's highest court upheld the structured judgment in full.

After trial: Structured settlement.

$33 Million Verdict for Physician Handcuffed During LAPD Traffic Stop in Budget Rental Car

A Haitian-American urological surgeon was subjected to a felony-level takedown on the Santa Monica Freeway after LAPD ran the plates on his rental car and received a stolen-vehicle alert caused by Budget Rent-A-Car's own plate error.

$28 Million Verdict After Boston Bar Serves Alcohol to Minors Who Fatally Assault 23-Year-Old

A Suffolk County jury awarded $28 million, including $25 million in punitive damages, after Father's Huddle Cafe in Boston served alcohol to underage patrons who attacked Thomas Christopher, 23, chasing him into traffic where he was struck and killed; the Massachusetts Appeals Court affirmed the verdict against the bar on January 28, 2003.

$105 Million Verdict in Off-Duty Officer's Murder of Tristin Little Sr.

A Baltimore City jury returned a $105 million wrongful-death verdict against off-duty Officer Rodney Price, who shot Tristin Little Sr. more than a dozen times with his service weapon in March 2001; the trial court later reduced the award to approximately $26.99 million.

After trial: The trial court reduced the jury's $105 million verdict to a $26,989,000 judgment against former officer Rodney Price personally. In 2006 Maryland's Court of Special Appeals ruled Price was not acting within the scope of his employment when he killed Little, so Baltimore City had no duty to pay the judgment, and it is largely uncollectable from Price, who is serving a life sentence.

$6.5 Million Verdict Against Physician Who Dismissed Spinal Symptoms as Stress

A Fredericksburg jury awarded $6.5 million to a young attorney left with permanent spinal cord damage after his primary care physician repeatedly dismissed neurological symptoms without examination, producing what was then reported as the largest medical malpractice verdict in Virginia history. The award was reduced to $1.55 million under the state damages cap, and the judgment was later reversed on an evidentiary ruling, sending the case back for a retrial on causation and damages.

Passenger Left Tetraplegic in High-Speed Rear-End Crash Settles for $1.6 Million

A 30-year-old passenger was left tetraplegic after a speeding driver hit his stalled car on a South Carolina road, and Michael A. DeMayo stacked two liability policies and an umbrella policy to reach a $1.6 million settlement.

The Jury Awarded $5.6 Million for a Brain-Injured Newborn. Nebraska's Cap Cut It to $1.25 Million, and the State Supreme Court Rejected Five Separate Constitutional Attacks on It.

A family alleged that negligent management of prenatal care during a 1993 pregnancy caused their son's brain injury. The jury awarded $5,625,000 against an obstetrician and her practice. The statutory cap reduced it to $1,250,000, and the Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed against a five-ground constitutional challenge.

After trial: Final, and it is the decision that made the cap durable. The jury returned $5,625,000 in the District Court for Douglas County; the district court entered judgment against the two liable defendants at the section 44-2825 limit for a 1993 occurrence, $1,250,000 under the statute as it then read in the 1998 Reissue; and on 16 May 2003 the Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed in No. See more

Trucking Company Settles Fatal Oversized-Load Crash For $1.2 Million Mid-Trial

Alfred Heekin, 84, suffered severe brain injuries on January 7, 2000, when he swerved to avoid a wrong-lane escort vehicle and struck an oversized manufactured home a Bennett Truck Transport rig was hauling across both lanes of Route 9 in Bennington, Vermont. He died nineteen months later. His widow, Marion Heekin, sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, and the Bennington firm now known as BarrSternberg took the case to a jury trial before Judge J. Garvan Murtha. On the third day of trial, with Marion Heekin about to testify, Bennett agreed to pay $1,200,000 to settle the wrongful death claim. Vermont imposes no cap on wrongful death damages, and because the case settled before verdict, the full amount stood with no appeal.