Top Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements of 2008

$85 Million Verdict for Penn Med Student Who Fell 18 Feet Into Open Center City Manhole

A Philadelphia jury awarded $85 million to a University of Pennsylvania medical student left disabled after falling 18 feet into an open Trigen Energy manhole at 19th and Walnut Streets, the largest personal injury verdict in the United States for 2008.

$80 Million Federal Judgment for Cuban Workers Forced Into Slave Labor at Curaçao Drydock

Stuart Grossman and Seth Miles won an $80 million federal default judgment for three Cuban nationals who were trafficked to Curaçao and compelled to work 16-hour shifts repairing ships for a fraction of a cent per hour under the Alien Tort Claims Act.

$54 Million Settlement for Gambrills Families Whose Drinking Wells Were Poisoned by Coal Ash

Hassan Murphy co-led the class action against Constellation Energy after fly ash from a coal plant fouled private drinking wells in a Gambrills neighborhood, producing a $54 million package that connected affected homes to public water and established a $9.5 million resident trust fund.

$38.5 Million for a Twin Left With Cerebral Palsy After a 25-Minute Delay in an Emergency Cesarean

Elizabeth Oram delivered twins at Stamford Hospital on April 4, 2003. The first was born healthy at 3:11 a.m. Two minutes later the second twin showed fetal distress from a compressed umbilical cord, but the cesarean was not completed until 3:38 a.m. The boy was born with severe brain damage and cerebral palsy. After a seven-week trial, a Stamford jury found obstetrician Dr. Corinne de Cholnoky liable in February 2008 and awarded $38.5 million, then the largest medical malpractice verdict in Connecticut.

After trial: The defendant's post-trial motions to set aside the verdict were denied and the trial court awarded offer-of-judgment interest on top of the $38.5 million. An appeal was docketed in the Connecticut Supreme Court (SC 18437/18440) and assigned for argument in December 2011, but the Judicial Branch's opinion archives for 2008 through 2014 contain no decision in the case. See more

$35.3 Million After a Nurse Pushed Air Into a Premature Infant's Transfusion Line

A Walworth County jury found Waukesha Memorial Hospital liable after a nurse pushed air into a two-week-old premature infant's IV line during a blood transfusion, sending emboli to his brain and leaving him with permanent quadriplegia and no usable speech.

$30.3 Million Take-Home Asbestos Verdict for Family of Mesothelioma Victim, Affirmed on Appeal

A Bergen County jury awarded $30,312,204 in February 2008 to the family of Mark Buttitta, who died of mesothelioma at 50 after breathing asbestos fibers his father carried home from GM parts warehouses and after his own college summers working there. Moshe Maimon of Levy Konigsberg tried the case, and the New Jersey Appellate Division affirmed the full award on April 5, 2010.

After trial: Affirmed in full by the New Jersey Appellate Division on April 5, 2010.

$24 Million Verdict for Four Families After Fatal Anoka Crossing Crash

A six-week Anoka County trial ended with a $24 million jury verdict against BNSF Railway after four young people died at a malfunctioning Ferry Street grade crossing in September 2003.

Driver Left a Ventilator-Dependent Quadriplegic in a Stop Sign Crash Wins $21.36 Million Judgment

James McAlonan was left a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic after Mildred Tracy drove through a stop sign in Harrison Township, New Jersey, and his Toyota Echo struck the side of her Ford Explorer. The trial judge granted McAlonan judgment against Tracy on negligence and proximate cause, the jury cleared codefendant Toyota on a companion airbag design claim, and the jury awarded $30,514,352.25. Because McAlonan was not wearing his seatbelt, the jury assigned him 30 percent comparative fault, and the court molded the verdict to a $21,360,046.65 judgment against Tracy. The Appellate Division affirmed in 2011, rejecting McAlonan's appeal of the defense verdict for Toyota. Mati Jarve, now of Jarve Granato Starr, tried and argued the case for McAlonan.

After trial: The New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division affirmed on January 3, 2011 (Docket No. A-6034-07T2). See more

Jury Holds Plastic Surgeon Liable for Death of Teen After Liposuction

Amy Fledderman, an 18-year-old Penn State freshman, died in 2001 from a fat embolism two days after plastic surgeon Richard Glunk performed liposuction on her in his King of Prussia office and, her family alleged, kept her there for roughly two and a half hours as she struggled to breathe instead of calling an ambulance. Her parents sued Glunk and his nurse anesthetist, Edward DeStefano, for medical malpractice and wrongful death in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas. In May 2008 a jury awarded the Fleddermans $5.5 million in compensatory damages, split 75 percent to Glunk and 25 percent to DeStefano, plus $15 million in punitive damages against Glunk, for a verdict of $20,525,000. The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the verdict, including the punitive award, in November 2010, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied further review on June 2, 2011.

After trial: The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the verdict, including the $15 million punitive damages award, on November 12, 2010. Its order was affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded, with the remanded portion concerning the trial court's refusal to award delay damages; what the molded judgment finally came to after remand is not documented in any public record we could find. See more

Federal Judge Rejects Race-Based Life Expectancy Tables in $18.3 Million Award for Staten Island Ferry Crash Victim

In October 2003, James McMillan was one of roughly 1,500 passengers on the Staten Island Ferry Andrew J. Barberi when it hit a maintenance pier at close to full speed after its solo pilot blacked out, a crash that killed 11 people and left McMillan a quadriplegic. Liability was already settled by the time his case reached trial, so Judge Jack B. Weinstein tried damages in the Eastern District of New York with an advisory jury, with Torgan & Cooper, P.C. (now Torgan Cooper + Aaron) representing McMillan. The City argued his future medical costs should be figured on race-based life expectancy statistics predicting a shorter life for a Black claimant; Weinstein refused, in the first federal ruling to hold that such statistics cannot be used to calculate damages. His own findings of fact, amended twice, fixed the award at $18.3 million, the largest of the cases brought against the City over the crash, and the City paid it.

After trial: Damages were tried to the court under federal maritime law with an advisory jury whose recommendation was not binding. Judge Weinstein's own findings of fact, amended in November and December 2008, fixed the award at $18.3 million, and that is the figure the court itself used when it later calculated counsel fees. See more

$23.5 Million Verdict Against Swift Transportation for Meth-Impaired Driver Who Backed Into Highway Traffic

A federal jury in Wichita awarded $23.5 million to a Yellow Freight co-driver left with debilitating injuries after a Swift Transportation driver, impaired by methamphetamine, backed her rig from a rest stop onto U.S. Highway 54 in New Mexico.

After trial: Judgment after comparative-fault reduction; $23.5 million gross verdict.

$13.5 Million Verdict After Dana-Farber Oncologists Ignored 17 Days of Diarrhea During Experimental Chemo

A Suffolk Superior Court jury awarded $13.5 million (a $9.4 million verdict plus interest) to the family of Amy Altman, 40, who died of a flesh-eating bacterial infection in July 2003 after Dana-Farber oncologists failed to investigate 17 consecutive days of diarrhea during an experimental chemotherapy protocol.

$10.7 Million Verdict for Queens Woman Left Paralyzed After Two-Hour ER Delay

A Queens County jury awarded $10.7 million to Candida Diego after finding that New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens failed to timely perform a CT scan on a woman who arrived with a skull fracture, allowing a brain herniation to progress until she lapsed into a coma.

$9.46 Million Judgment Upheld After Coal Miner Paralyzed by Boulder at Black Thunder Mine

A Wyoming jury awarded $22 million after coal miner Les Butts was left paraplegic when a boulder crushed his vehicle at Black Thunder Mine; the Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed a $9.46 million judgment against his supervisors in June 2008.

After trial: Affirmed in full by the Supreme Court of Wyoming on June 11, 2008, 2008 WY 65, 185 P.3d 679, No. S-07-0156, and it was the largest judgment ever affirmed on appeal in Wyoming at the time. See more

Macomb County Jury Awards $5.65 Million After Chrysler Pickup Runs Man Over on Hunting Trip

A Macomb County jury awarded Tony and Lisa Broeren $5.65 million after a Chrysler employee ran Tony over with a company pickup and left him with a brain injury, and the trial judge upheld the verdict in full.

Gursten Wins $3.9 Million for the Family of Patrick Nunez, Killed by an Out-of-Service Gravel Truck

Steven Gursten secured a $3.9 million wrongful death settlement after a gravel hauler driven by a trucker on epilepsy medication, in a rig that was out of service in more than five ways, killed Patrick Nunez on I-75 in Detroit.

The Cell Door Locks at the Hinds County Jail Had Been Broken Since It Opened in 1994. A Prisoner Jimmied One, Got In, and Body-Slammed a 23-Year-Old Until He Was Paralyzed From the Chest Down.

On March 12, 2007 Michael Burnley, 23, was in his cell at the Hinds County jail in Raymond when another prisoner, John Earl Kennedy, jimmied the faulty lock on the door, got in, and repeatedly body-slammed him. Burnley was left paralyzed from mid-chest down. Sheriff Malcolm McMillin acknowledged the cell locks had been faulty since the jail opened in 1994, a fourteen-year-old defect that cost about $20,000 to fix. The county settled his Section 1983 suit on April 21, 2008 for $3,000,000.

After trial: A settlement approved by the Hinds County Board of Supervisors on April 21, 2008, so the figure is final by construction and no cap applied; the county's insurer covered a third of it and the county funded the rest in installments beginning in May 2008. Collectability: the payer is a county under a board-approved installment schedule; Prison Legal News reports the schedule, not its completion, so the disclosure stays at not public. See more

$2.5 Million Wrongful Death Verdict for Families of Two Women Killed in Montana Fuel-Truck Crash

A Butte federal jury returned a $2.5 million verdict for the families of two women killed when a Patrol Helicopters fuel-truck driver failed to signal before turning on a Park County road, and the Ninth Circuit unanimously affirmed the award.

Coles County Jury Awards $2.38 Million to Prostate Cancer Patient Left Incontinent After a Nurse Gave an Enema a Surgeon Had Not Approved

Five days after a radical prostatectomy at Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center in Mattoon in August 2003, Clinton Dean Lovell was admitted with constipation. A physician ordered an enema only if Lovell's urologist approved; a nurse skipped that step and had an aide give a tap-water enema, which tore open the freshly sutured area and created a fistula between his rectum and bladder. Lovell went through a colostomy, a bladder catheter, fistula repair, colostomy reversal and an artificial urinary sphincter, and was left permanently incontinent. The hospital admitted negligence but blamed the surgery for the fistula. In September 2008 a Coles County jury awarded $2,378,258, and the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed in January 2010.

After trial: Affirmed on appeal by the Illinois Appellate Court, Fourth District, on January 12, 2010 (Lovell v. Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center, No. See more

Federal Jury Awards $1.1 Million to Woman Raped Three Times by Pennington County Jail Guard

A federal jury awarded $1.1 million to a pretrial detainee who was sexually assaulted three times by a corrections officer at Pennington County Jail.