Top Individual Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements of 2012

$200 Million Verdict for 92-Year-Old Who Fell Down Nursing Home Stairwell Strapped in Her Wheelchair

A Pinellas County jury awarded $60 million in compensatory and $140 million in punitive damages over the death of 92-year-old Elvira Nunziata, who tumbled down a stairwell still strapped in her wheelchair at the Pinellas Park Care and Rehab Center, in a Wilkes & McHugh case where the defunct operator Trans Health Management presented no defense at all, meaning the record-setting sum was symbolic from the start; the estate later recovered only a share of a modest multi-estate bankruptcy settlement.

After trial: Unopposed verdict against a dissolved company; never paid. The estate shared the $23.7M six-estate bankruptcy settlement.

$120 Million Verdict for Woman Brain-Damaged After Three NYC Hospitals Missed Stevens-Johnson Syndrome

A Bronx jury awarded $120 million to Jacqueline Martin, a 45-year-old mother who suffered permanent brain damage after three New York City hospitals repeatedly failed to recognize and treat a severe allergic reaction to seizure medication that triggered Stevens-Johnson Syndrome.

After trial: The hospital corporation announced an appeal; no final public outcome is on record.

$108.6 Million Wrongful-Death Verdict in Fatal Home Birth Tied to Faith-Healing Group

A Jackson County jury returned a $108.6 million verdict for the parents of a woman who died from sepsis after her husband's religious group prevented her from receiving medical care during a botched home birth.

After trial: The Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, affirmed the full $108.6 million verdict in 2014, upholding both the $8.65 million compensatory award and the $100 million punitive award. The defendants, Caleb Horner, John Horner, and Amber Horner Leathers, are individuals who represented themselves at trial and on appeal, so collectability of the judgment is doubtful.

West Penn Power Faces a $109 Million Verdict in a Fatal Backyard Electrocution, Later Paid $105 Million

An Allegheny County jury found West Penn Power negligent for the splice failure that dropped a live 7,200-volt line on Carrie Goretzka in her own backyard. The 2012 verdict reached $109 million. The utility later paid a reported $105 million to drop its appeal.

After trial: West Penn Power dropped its appeal of the $109 million verdict in February 2013 and agreed to pay $105 million instead, ending the case without a court ruling on the appeal.

$85 Million Verdict for Oregon National Guard Soldiers Poisoned by KBR in Iraq

A federal jury in Portland awarded $85 million to 12 Oregon Army National Guard soldiers after finding that contractor KBR knowingly exposed them to a carcinogenic chemical at an Iraqi water treatment plant and then lied about the danger.

$78.5 Million Verdict After Faulty Ultrasound Caused 81-Minute Delay in Emergency C-Section

A Philadelphia jury found Pottstown Memorial Medical Center liable for a newborn's severe spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy after the hospital's outdated, unmaintained ultrasound equipment led a physician to incorrectly declare the baby dead, delaying an emergency cesarean section by 81 minutes.

$64 Million Verdict for Ironworker Left Quadriplegic After 15-Foot Fall at Panduit Warehouse

A Cook County jury awarded $64 million to Ronald Bayer, a union ironworker paralyzed from the neck down after falling 15 feet at a Panduit Corp. warehouse construction site in DeKalb, Illinois, at the time the largest verdict ever returned for a quadriplegic in Illinois.

$32.83 Million Verdict for Severe Brain Injury After Fall From Hotel Balcony With Code-Deficient Railing

A Newport Beach hotel guest fell two stories from a balcony with a railing eight inches below California building code height, suffered a skull fracture and catastrophic traumatic brain injury, and an Orange County jury returned a $38,628,127 verdict against the hotel in 2012.

After trial: The jury awarded $38.6 million and put 15 percent of the fault on the guest, so the judgment was reduced to about $32.8 million and was fully paid by May 2014.

$26.1 Million Settlement for I-80 Tractor-Trailer Death, Reported as Pennsylvania's Largest of Its Kind

Feldman Shepherd secured a $26.1 million settlement for the family of a man killed and a husband left with a traumatic brain injury when a tractor-trailer hit stopped traffic on Interstate 80 at more than 70 mph.

$24 Million Verdict After Coca-Cola Driver on Hands-Free Call Blindsided a Woman at an Intersection

A Nueces County jury awarded Vanice Chatman-Wilson $24 million, including $10 million in punitive damages, after a Coca-Cola employee on a hands-free business call turned left into oncoming traffic and crushed Chatman-Wilson's car at a downtown Corpus Christi intersection.

Copilot Burned in Fatal Wildfire Helicopter Crash Wins Verdict Against Engine Maker

William Coultas, the copilot who survived a 2008 helicopter crash that killed nine people on the Iron Complex fire in Northern California, sued General Electric over the engine's fuel control unit after suffering severe burns. A Multnomah County jury in Portland found GE 57 percent at fault on March 27, 2012 and awarded $42,000,000 to Coultas and his wife as part of a $70,455,000 verdict that also compensated the pilot's estate. Because Oregon makes defendants severally liable for their own share of fault, the couple's judgment was entered at $23,940,000. GE said it would appeal, and court records show the judgment was still on appeal in August 2013. A later federal opinion states the plaintiffs ultimately settled with all of the defendants.

After trial: Reduced. The $42,000,000 award to Mr. and Mrs. See more

$20.6 Million Verdict for Premature Infant With Cerebral Palsy After Delayed C-Section in Baltimore

A Baltimore City jury returned a $21 million verdict against MedStar Harbor Hospital after physicians failed to perform a timely emergency cesarean section during a premature delivery, causing a newborn to suffer oxygen deprivation and permanent spastic diplegic cerebral palsy.

Movie Extra Wins $18.5 Million After Stunt Cable Shatters Skull on Transformers 3 Set

A Cook County judge approved an $18.5 million settlement for Gabriela Cedillo, a 24-year-old extra who suffered catastrophic brain damage when a snapped tow cable tore through her windshield during filming of Transformers: Dark of the Moon in Hammond, Indiana.

Paralyzed Forklift Operator's $17.34 Million Warehouse Racking Judgment Survives Appeal

Leroy Rice, a forklift operator, was left permanently paralyzed on September 18, 2001, when a storage racking system at his Philadelphia warehouse job collapsed and dropped roughly a ton of frozen food on him. A Philadelphia jury awarded him $12,400,000 at a second trial in 2010, after the Superior Court reversed the first trial's judgment and ordered a new trial on damages, and the trial court molded that verdict to $17,339,797.30 to add delay damages. The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the judgment against racking manufacturer Interlake Material Handling Inc. on February 22, 2012, according to contemporaneous legal-press coverage. Thomas J. Duffy Jr. is named in the trial court's opinion as counsel for Rice.

After trial: The molded second-trial judgment of $17,339,797.30 includes delay damages and followed a first verdict of $10.6 million that was reversed on June 26, 2009. A Superior Court panel reportedly affirmed the molded judgment on February 22, 2012 (unpublished), and a supersedeas bond was posted. See more

Runaway Railcar Costs Georgia Plant Worker Both Legs, CSX Settlement Reaches $16 Million

Douglas Burchfield, a General Mills employee at the company's cereal plant in Covington, Georgia, suffered the partial amputation of both legs when a loaded railcar rolled loose and ran him over during a routine railcar switch in June 2005. He sued CSX Transportation, which had delivered the car, arguing it put the car into service with a defective handbrake. A first jury cleared CSX, but the 11th Circuit reversed after finding the trial court had improperly let CSX show the jury a reenactment video, and a retrial jury found Burchfield zero percent negligent, CSX 100 percent negligent, and awarded him $20,559,004. CSX appealed, and while that appeal was pending the parties settled the claim for $16 million, which CSX paid.

After trial: Settled and paid. CSX appealed the retrial judgment to the Eleventh Circuit, and while the appeal was pending the parties settled for $16 million and CSX paid it. See more

State Pays $15.4 Million After Trail Sign Channeled Two Visitors Off a 300-Foot Cliff

A Kauai judge found Hawaii totally at fault after a state-posted warning sign at the left trail entrance near Opaeka'a Falls left the right-hand path, which ended at a sheer 300-foot cliff, completely unmarked, sending two visiting women to their deaths.

Corner Iron Off Lion Raisins Truck Pierces Schoolteacher's Brain: $11.8 Million Fresno Verdict

A corner iron that broke loose from a Lion Raisins semi-trailer on Highway 99 shot through Susan Reyes' windshield and into her brain, leaving the Fresno schoolteacher with catastrophic, permanent injuries; Richard Watters secured a jury verdict of $11,876,655.82.

Parents of 6-Year-Old Killed by School Bus Win Wrongful Death Judgment Against Driver in St. Louis

A six-year-old boy was struck and killed by a North Callaway school bus in January 2011 after getting off at his stop. His parents sued the driver for wrongful death, and after a December 2012 bench trial in St. Louis the court entered judgment for them for $11,494,637.38. The judgment was not appealed. The Eastern District later held the school insurer's policy covered it.

After trial: The judgment against the driver was not appealed or reduced. On the parents' garnishment against the school insurer, the Eastern District affirmed coverage in 2017 but limited that judgment to the policy's remaining limit plus interest and remanded for recalculation. See more

$20 Million Verdict for Wrong-Side Brain Surgery on a Boy, Judgment Entered at $11 Million

A 15-year-old boy went into Arkansas Children's Hospital for surgery to remove the brain tissue causing his seizures. The surgeon opened the wrong side of his head and removed healthy tissue before turning to the correct side. His parents were not told, and learned of it more than a year later during an unrelated examination.

After trial: Affirmed. The jury returned $20,000,000 on September 24, 2010 and judgment was entered at $11,000,000, the insurer's policy limit and the ceiling under Arkansas's direct-action statute, not a finding of excessiveness. See more

$7.5 Million Settlement for Family of Electrician Killed in Norfolk Propane Explosion

Marc Breakstone secured a $7.5 million wrongful death settlement for the family of William 'Billy' Nichols, a 46-year-old electrician killed in a July 2010 propane explosion at a Norfolk condominium construction site, after proving that a propane distributor's deliberate under-filling of a new tank caused the safety odorant to dissipate, leaving a deadly gas leak completely undetectable.