Top Individual Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements of 2006
The 9 largest individual personal injury results from 2006, nationwide on record here, ranked by amount: one client's, one family's, or one incident's recovery, never a pooled fund. Each links to the full story, the firm, and the record behind the number.
- $216.8 millionVerdict
$216.8 Million Verdict for Stroke Patient Misdiagnosed as Sinusitis
A Hillsborough County jury awarded $216.8 million to Allan Navarro after an emergency room misdiagnosed his stroke as sinusitis, leaving him permanently paralyzed. It was the largest medical malpractice verdict in Florida history at the time.
After trial: The case settled confidentially in March 2007, before appellate review.
- $106 millionVerdictNot collectable
San Diego Jury Returns $106 Million in the Fentanyl Murder of Greg de Villers
A San Diego jury held former county toxicologist Kristin Rossum and San Diego County responsible for the 2000 fentanyl killing of Greg de Villers, awarding his family $106 million in a wrongful death case tried by John Gomez.
After trial: The verdict is against Kristin Rossum individually, who is serving a life sentence in prison for her husband's murder and has no assets. The family has said it does not expect to collect the money and pursued the case mainly so Rossum could not profit from the crime.
- $16.5 millionVerdict
Carbon Dioxide for Oxygen: $16.5 Million Federal Verdict Against Tripler Army Medical Center
A federal judge awarded $16.5 million to the family of a newborn who suffered permanent brain damage after an Army pediatrician at Tripler Army Medical Center administered carbon dioxide instead of oxygen for 42 minutes following his birth. It was the largest single personal-injury judgment for an individual in Hawaii history at the time.
Cronin, Fried, Sekiya, Kekina & Fairbanks2006 · U.S. District Court, District of Hawaii (Honolulu)Read the full story → - $5 millionVerdict
$5 Million FELA Jury Verdict for Norfolk Southern Conductor Struck by Passing Train in Memphis Rail Corridor
A Shelby County jury found Norfolk Southern 100 percent at fault after veteran conductor Thomas David Jordan was struck by a passing BNSF train while working between dangerously close tracks in South Memphis, awarding $5 million under the Federal Employers' Liability Act. Wettermark Keith co-founder Chris Keith was counsel of record for Jordan, and the Tennessee Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment entered on the verdict in 2009.
Wettermark Keith Personal Injury Lawyers2006 · Circuit Court of Shelby County (Memphis), TennesseeRead the full story → - $3.5 millionSettlementReduced from $18 millionPaid
$3.5 Million Settlement After $18 Million Verdict Over Haldol Death of Idaho Nursing Home Resident
Delbert Hayward, 86, a mechanic, died in February 1995 after nearly a year at Valley Vista Care Center in St. Maries, Idaho, where his family said he was repeatedly given the antipsychotic drug Haldol to control him. After a three-week trial in May 2006, a Benewah County jury returned an $18 million punitive verdict. By November 2006 the case had resolved in a $3.5 million settlement, most of it paid by the home's insurers.
After trial: The $18 million punitive verdict of May 2006 was replaced by a $3.5 million settlement by November 2006, so the settlement is the figure that stood. About $3.4 million came from the home's two insurers and about $100,000 from the home.
Eymann Allison Hunter Jones, P.S.2006 · Benewah County District Court, St. Maries, IdahoRead the full story → - $3.1 millionVerdict
$3.1 Million Verdict Against the U.S. Government for FBI-Caused Murder of Informant John McIntyre
A federal court found the U.S. government liable for the 1984 murder of FBI informant John McIntyre after agent John Connolly disclosed his identity to Winter Hill Gang leaders Whitey Bulger and Stephen Flemmi, and the First Circuit affirmed the $3.1 million award in 2008.
Shaheen & Gordon, P.A.2006 · U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts (affirmed 1st Cir. 2008)Read the full story → - $2.5 millionVerdict
$2.5 Million Verdict for Daughter of Unarmed Howard Student Prince Jones, Killed by Undercover Officer
A Prince George's County jury found an undercover officer liable for fatally shooting Prince Jones, an unarmed Howard University student stopped in a case of mistaken identity, and awarded his young daughter $2.5 million.
Patrick Malone & Associates, P.C.2006 · Prince George's County Circuit Court, MarylandRead the full story → - $1,600,000 judgment ($600,000 compensatory plus $1,000,000 punitive, accepted by the plaintiff as a court-ordered remittitur in lieu of a new trial on damages; original jury verdict was $51,000,000: $50,000,000 compensatory and $1,000,000 punitive)VerdictReduced from $51 million
Retired FBI Agent Wins Vioxx Failure-to-Warn Verdict Against Merck
Gerald Barnett, a retired FBI agent from South Carolina, took Vioxx starting in 1999 for chronic neck and back pain and suffered a heart attack in September 2002 at age 58, followed by quintuple bypass surgery. His case was chosen as the second bellwether trial in the federal Vioxx multidistrict litigation, and on August 17, 2006 a New Orleans jury found Merck had negligently failed to warn his doctors of the drug's risks and had concealed information about those risks, awarding him $50 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages. The trial judge found the compensatory award excessive and ordered a new trial unless Barnett accepted a reduced award; Barnett accepted a remittitur of $1.6 million on June 20, 2007, and judgment was entered in that amount on June 28, 2007. Merck reported that it appealed that judgment, and no decision resolving the appeal has been published.
After trial: Reduced. The trial court cut the $50 million compensatory award to $600,000 by remittitur, leaving the $1 million punitive award, and Barnett accepted it.
Robinson Calcagnie, Inc.2006 · U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (In re Vioxx Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 1657), New OrleansRead the full story → - $1 millionVerdictReduced from $44 million
$44 Million Verdict for Man Left Quadriplegic by Baltimore Police Officer, Settled for $1 Million
William H. Murphy Jr. won a $44 million Baltimore jury verdict after a police officer threw handcuffed Albert Mosley headfirst into a concrete jail cell wall, rendering him a permanent quadriplegic; the city refused to pay and the case ultimately settled for $1 million.
After trial: Settled for $1 million after a $44 million verdict.
11 results, largest first
A Hillsborough County jury awarded $216.8 million to Allan Navarro after an emergency room misdiagnosed his stroke as sinusitis, leaving him permanently paralyzed. It was the largest medical malpractice verdict in Florida history at the time.
A San Diego jury held former county toxicologist Kristin Rossum and San Diego County responsible for the 2000 fentanyl killing of Greg de Villers, awarding his family $106 million in a wrongful death case tried by John Gomez.
Thomas Demetrio of Corboy & Demetrio represented seven of the people killed and injured when a suspended work platform fell from the John Hancock Center in 2002, part of a $75 million global settlement reached on the eve of trial.
A federal judge awarded $16.5 million to the family of a newborn who suffered permanent brain damage after an Army pediatrician at Tripler Army Medical Center administered carbon dioxide instead of oxygen for 42 minutes following his birth. It was the largest single personal-injury judgment for an individual in Hawaii history at the time.
An Alameda County jury awarded $61 million, including $50 million in punitive damages, to two Lebanese-American FedEx Ground drivers a manager harassed with ethnic slurs, a verdict the trial judge later cut to $12.4 million.
A Shelby County jury found Norfolk Southern 100 percent at fault after veteran conductor Thomas David Jordan was struck by a passing BNSF train while working between dangerously close tracks in South Memphis, awarding $5 million under the Federal Employers' Liability Act. Wettermark Keith co-founder Chris Keith was counsel of record for Jordan, and the Tennessee Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment entered on the verdict in 2009.
Delbert Hayward, 86, a mechanic, died in February 1995 after nearly a year at Valley Vista Care Center in St. Maries, Idaho, where his family said he was repeatedly given the antipsychotic drug Haldol to control him. After a three-week trial in May 2006, a Benewah County jury returned an $18 million punitive verdict. By November 2006 the case had resolved in a $3.5 million settlement, most of it paid by the home's insurers.
A federal court found the U.S. government liable for the 1984 murder of FBI informant John McIntyre after agent John Connolly disclosed his identity to Winter Hill Gang leaders Whitey Bulger and Stephen Flemmi, and the First Circuit affirmed the $3.1 million award in 2008.
A Prince George's County jury found an undercover officer liable for fatally shooting Prince Jones, an unarmed Howard University student stopped in a case of mistaken identity, and awarded his young daughter $2.5 million.
Gerald Barnett, a retired FBI agent from South Carolina, took Vioxx starting in 1999 for chronic neck and back pain and suffered a heart attack in September 2002 at age 58, followed by quintuple bypass surgery. His case was chosen as the second bellwether trial in the federal Vioxx multidistrict litigation, and on August 17, 2006 a New Orleans jury found Merck had negligently failed to warn his doctors of the drug's risks and had concealed information about those risks, awarding him $50 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages. The trial judge found the compensatory award excessive and ordered a new trial unless Barnett accepted a reduced award; Barnett accepted a remittitur of $1.6 million on June 20, 2007, and judgment was entered in that amount on June 28, 2007. Merck reported that it appealed that judgment, and no decision resolving the appeal has been published.
William H. Murphy Jr. won a $44 million Baltimore jury verdict after a police officer threw handcuffed Albert Mosley headfirst into a concrete jail cell wall, rendering him a permanent quadriplegic; the city refused to pay and the case ultimately settled for $1 million.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.