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.

$40.1 Million Verdict for Man Whose Heart Was Destroyed by Defective Cardiac Monitor

A Snohomish County jury awarded Paramjit Singh and his family $40.1 million after an Edwards Lifesciences cardiac monitoring device overheated during bypass surgery and destroyed his heart, forcing a transplant, because the manufacturer had concealed a known software defect for years.

$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: Post-trial motions to set aside the verdict were denied and interest was added to the $38.5 million. An appeal was docketed in the Connecticut Supreme Court for argument in December 2011, but no decision has been reported, and the firm's statement that the verdict was upheld is unconfirmed. 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

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.

$23.4 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.

After trial: The jury awarded $6 million to each of four estates and put 10 percent of the fault on the driver, so his estate's award was cut to $5.4 million and the four total $23.4 million, which the Minnesota Supreme Court reinstated in 2012.

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: Reduced and affirmed. The New Jersey Appellate Division affirmed on January 3, 2011. 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: Affirmed. The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the verdict, including $15 million in punitive damages, on November 12, 2010, remanding only the delay damages issue, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied review on June 2, 2011. See more

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

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: Paid. Judge Weinstein fixed the $18.3 million award in findings of fact amended in November and December 2008, after an advisory jury. See more

$23.5 Million Verdict Against Swift Transportation for Meth-Impaired Driver

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.

Court Awards $13.69 Million to Child With Spina Bifida After Navy Clinic Skipped Folic Acid Advice

After a bench trial in November 2007, a federal court found that a Navy clinic physician in Millington, Tennessee, breached the standard of care by not recommending prenatal vitamins to a patient planning a pregnancy, and held that the lapse caused her daughter's spina bifida. The court entered a $13,690,648.17 judgment on March 31, 2008. The government appealed, and the judgment was set aside on October 9, 2008, when the parties' compromise settlement and a trust for the child were approved.

After trial: The judgment was set aside on October 9, 2008, on the parties' joint motion after the government's Sixth Circuit appeal (No. 08-5699) was remanded for a compromise settlement; it was not reversed on the merits. See more

Family Settles for $13.5 Million After Girl Dies in South Milwaukee Sizzler E. coli Outbreak

The family of a three-year-old girl who died of E. coli traced to contaminated beef at a South Milwaukee Sizzler reached a $13.5 million settlement, among the largest food-borne-illness recoveries in the country.

$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 Wyoming Supreme Court on June 11, 2008 (185 P.3d 679). The jury found $18,000,000 in damages, but 57 percent of fault was assigned to the immune non-party mine operator, so Butts collected only the two individual defendants' shares, $7,740,000 to himself plus $860,000 to each of two children's derivative claims, or $9,460,000 in total. See more

$5.8 Million Verdict for Family of Attorney Who Died of Untreated Melanoma

A Montgomery County jury found a Maryland dermatology practice liable for the death of 47-year-old attorney Richard Semsker, whose melanoma went untreated for two years.

$4.35 Million Settlement for DeQuincy Police Officer Burned by a Damaged CLECO Power Line

DeQuincy police corporal Randy James Henry was badly burned by a power line in November 2000 while investigating a truck crash that had left live CLECO lines sagging over the scene. He sued the utility, the driver and the driver's insurer, and nearly eight years after the accident settled with CLECO at mediation on October 23, 2008 for $4,350,000. The settlement stood; the later fight was over his employer's workers' compensation credit.

After trial: The settlement was completed and was never appealed. The later litigation was the City of DeQuincy's workers' compensation credit claim, in which the Louisiana Supreme Court held on March 15, 2011 that the City's credit against the settlement covers Henry's future medical costs as well as disability benefits.

$3 Million Settlement for an Inmate Paralyzed After an Attack Through a Broken Hinds County Jail Lock

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: Settlement approved by the Hinds County Board of Supervisors on April 21, 2008. The county's insurer covered a third and the county funded the rest in installments beginning in May 2008. See more