Top Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements of 2011

Fayette County Jury Awards $150.37 Billion After Fatal Gasoline Attack on an 8-Year-Old

In December 2011, a Fayette County, Texas jury awarded the family of an 8-year-old Splendora boy $150.37 billion after he was doused with gasoline and set on fire by a 13-year-old neighbor in 1998, two weeks after the same neighbor sexually assaulted him. The boy survived third-degree burns over 99 percent of his body for nearly 13 years before dying in April 2011 of a skin cancer linked to his injuries. The defendant, Don Wilburn Collins, never appeared to answer the civil suit, and the jury awarded $370 million in actual damages plus roughly $150 billion in punitive damages, the largest civil verdict in U.S. history. Attorney Craig Sico, who represented the family, said from the outset that the judgment was not collectible and was intended to pressure prosecutors into reopening the long-dormant criminal case. Prosecutors did reopen the case, and Collins was later convicted of capital murder in a separate criminal proceeding.

After trial: The Texas verdict was never expected to be collected. Collins had no assets, and attorney Craig Sico said publicly that the family understood the judgment was symbolic and would not be paid. See more

Diocese of Wilmington Pays $77.4 Million to 146 Clergy Abuse Survivors in Bankruptcy Settlement

Thomas Crumplar and co-counsel secured a $77.425 million trust for 146 survivors of clergy sexual abuse as part of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington's Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in 2011.

$73 Million Verdict Against Ford After Fatal Van Rollover

A Sacramento jury ordered Ford to pay $73 million, including $50 million in punitive damages, after a tire tread separation caused a 15-passenger van to roll four times on Interstate 5, killing two Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church members and injuring two others.

$58.6 Million Verdict Over a Delayed C-Section That Left a Norwalk Boy With Severe Cerebral Palsy

A Waterbury jury awarded Dominic and Cathy D'Attilo and their son Daniel $58.6 million after finding that obstetrician Richard Viscarello delayed a necessary cesarean section during Daniel's birth, depriving him of oxygen and leaving him with severe cerebral palsy.

After trial: No appeal of the verdict was found in public reporting; press accounts describe it as the largest medical malpractice verdict in Connecticut history at the time it was returned.

Failure to Warn of Heart Attack and Stroke Risk: Misny's Pharmaceutical Block Settles for $42.5 Million

After a 2009 Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for pharmaceutical failure-to-warn suits, Tim Misny built a roughly 1,000-case pharmaceutical tort campaign around a drug whose labeling omitted warnings about elevated heart attack and stroke risk, and one block of those cases settled for $42.5 million in 2011, with Misny working alongside co-counsel.

Butte County Jury Awards $30.9 Million After MasterCraft Boat Bows Under and Propeller Strikes Passenger

A Butte County jury held MasterCraft 80 percent liable for a design defect that caused the bow of a fully loaded X45 wakeboarding boat to submerge on Lake Oroville, throwing Niki Bell into the propeller and permanently destroying her left eye and part of her frontal lobe.

$30.7 Million Verdict After Three Brothers Fell Through the Ice on a Condominium Community's Lake

On the morning of March 11, 2001, three brothers went through the ice on Lake Holiday inside the Lakes of the Four Seasons, a gated condominium community in Crown Point, Indiana. One 11-year-old drowned, his 10-year-old brother was pulled out with a traumatic brain injury, and the third boy, the drowned child's twin, was rescued by a diver. At trial in February 2011 the family's lawyers showed that an overflow crib circulating water beneath the surface had thinned the ice at that spot while staying invisible from shore, and that the property owners association had posted no warning sign, put up no barrier and kept no rescue equipment at the lake. A Lake Circuit Court jury assigned all of the fault to the association and awarded $30.7 million, itemized as $25.5 million for the brain injury, $5 million for the death and $200,000 for the surviving twin. A news report at the time said an appeal was expected, and no published Indiana appellate decision in the case has since turned up.

After trial: A contemporaneous news report said the property owners association was expected to appeal the verdict, meaning the family would not see the money right away. No published Indiana Court of Appeals opinion in this case turned up in a search of the state's appellate records, so it is not publicly confirmed whether an appeal was filed, whether the case was later resolved privately, or whether the full $30.7 million was ultimately paid.

$25 Million Settlement for Families of 45 Patients Who Died at Memorial Medical Center After Hurricane Katrina

Joseph Bruno led a class-action lawsuit against Tenet Healthcare after 45 patients died at Memorial Medical Center during Hurricane Katrina, securing a $25 million settlement in 2011.

$23 Million Verdict for Truck Driver Who Lost a Leg and Suffered Brain Injury After I-295 Collision

A Richmond jury awarded $23 million to a commercial truck driver who suffered a traumatic brain injury, crushed pelvis, and right-leg amputation when a Moen Inc. tractor-trailer parked in the emergency lane of I-295 pulled back into traffic and was struck by his rig at highway speed.

$20.6 Million Verdict After Defective Pool Slide Kills Massachusetts Mother

A Salem jury awarded $20.6 million, including $18 million in punitive damages, after a defective Banzai inflatable pool slide sold by Toys R Us collapsed and killed a 29-year-old woman in Andover, Massachusetts; the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the full verdict in 2013.

Las Vegas Jury Awards $19.85 Million to Worker Crushed by Rolling Forklift

A Clark County jury awarded $19,854,217 to Thomas Novick, a construction worker run over by a 14,000-pound rough-terrain forklift, in a case tried by John Shook of Shook & Stone.

The Dump Truck Had to Enter a 65 mph Highway at an Angle to Get Around a Road Grader. Neither Driver Could See the Other.

Ariel Anderson, 23, was driving home from work on U.S. 67/167 near Jacksonville when a highway contractor's dump truck merged into her lane at about 30 mph. It had entered at an angle to get around a road grader, so neither driver could see the other. The jury found the contractor had not posted the warning signs the project required.

After trial: Arkansas cannot cap damages: Article 5, Section 32 of its constitution forbids it, and the Arkansas Supreme Court struck down the punitive-damages cap in Bayer CropScience v. Schafer (2011). See more

$15.4 Million Verdict for DUI Crash Victim Who Suffered Skull Fractures and Permanent Brain Damage at Broward Drawbridge

A Broward County jury awarded $15.4 million to Dwight Grant, a 22-year-old backseat passenger who suffered skull fractures and permanent frontal-lobe brain damage when a drunk driver with a BAC of .21 rear-ended the stopped car at a drawbridge in Pompano Beach.

$15.2 Million Verdict for Family of Lorillard Smoker Who Died of Lung Cancer

A Duval County jury awarded $15.2 million -- $3.9 million compensatory and $11.3 million punitive -- to the daughter of a lifelong Lorillard smoker who died of lung cancer, with Terrell Hogan attorneys representing the family.

Toddler Loses Both Feet and a Hand After 5-Hour ER Wait at Sacramento Methodist Hospital; Family Recovers $10 Million

A two-year-old girl lost both feet, her left hand, and the fingers of her right hand after Methodist Hospital staff left her untreated in the ER for five hours with a Streptococcus A infection; Moseley Collins secured a $10 million settlement, among the largest medical malpractice recoveries in California history.

Courthouse Employee's Asbestos Death Settles for $10 Million

Nancy Lopez worked at the Jackson County Courthouse in Kansas City for 27 years, where she was an administrative assistant to a judge, before she died of mesothelioma in October 2010 at 56. She had sued U.S. Engineering Co. and Jackson County, alleging the contractor mishandled asbestos wrapped pipes and air handling units during a 1983 and 1984 courthouse renovation and let asbestos dust spread through the building. Her family settled the wrongful death claim on November 18, 2011 for $10 million, with Jackson County's share reported at $400,000, after the case had been set for a lengthy jury trial. Her attorney, Lou Accurso, said it was the largest asbestos settlement in Missouri history at the time. The settlement did not cover a separate class action later brought by other courthouse employees.

After trial: A state-record Missouri asbestos settlement at the time; U.S. Engineering Co. paid the bulk and Jackson County paid $400,000.

All-Female Jury Awards $9.3 Million After Dallas Prep School Expelled Student Abused by Her Teacher

A Dallas County jury found Episcopal School of Dallas grossly negligent and awarded $9.3 million after the school forced out a 16-year-old student who had been sexually abused by her history teacher, rather than protecting her.

Vista Jury Awards Chiropractor $7.5 Million After Starbucks Floor Slip and Brain Injury

A San Diego County jury ordered Starbucks to pay roughly $7.5 million after chiropractor Anthony Zaccaglin slipped on a freshly mopped store floor, struck his head, and suffered a brain injury that ended his career.

Snowstorm Crash With Edison Vehicle: Fresno Jury Returns $5.75 Million

A Southern California Edison driver lost control during a snowstorm and crashed into Manuel Ornelas' vehicle, leaving him with serious pelvic and spinal injuries; his Fresno attorney Richard Watters of Miles, Sears & Eanni, with co-counsel Patrick Toole of Jones Helsley, tried the case and the jury returned $5,746,627.

$5.5 Million Childbirth Malpractice Verdict Against Lenox Hill Hospital, Later Reversed on Appeal

A New York County jury unanimously returned a $5.5 million verdict for a Queens woman and her husband after Lenox Hill Hospital staff fractured her pelvis during delivery of a large baby, but the Appellate Division First Department reversed the award in 2013 for insufficient expert proof.