Top Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements of 2013
The 20 largest personal injury recoveries from 2013, nationwide, ranked by amount, with 57 independently-sourced results to browse. Individual client results and group recoveries are both listed and labeled. Each links to the full story, the firm, and the record behind the number.
Every result on this list holds a ProvenVerdicts designation, the largest verified personal injury result of 2013 or one of the Top 20, which the firm can display with a badge from its results page. The ranking is live and moves as results are verified.
- $2.5 billionSettlementGroup recovery
Weitz and Luxenberg Co-Lead Counsel in $2.5 Billion DePuy ASR Hip Implant Settlement
Ellen Relkin served as court-appointed co-lead plaintiffs counsel in the DePuy ASR hip implant MDL, helping negotiate a $2.5 billion settlement for roughly 8,000 patients who required revision surgery after the metal-on-metal device failed.
Weitz & Luxenberg2013 · U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio (MDL No. 2197)Read the full story → - $366 millionVerdictReduced from $524 million
$524 Million Verdict Against UnitedHealth Subsidiaries for Credentialing Doctor Who Caused Nation's Largest Medically Caused Hepatitis C Outbreak
A Clark County jury ordered Health Plan of Nevada and Sierra Health Services to pay $524 million after finding the UnitedHealth Group subsidiaries negligently credentialed a gastroenterologist whose unsafe injection practices at his Las Vegas endoscopy clinics caused the largest medically caused hepatitis C outbreak in American history.
After trial: In September 2013 the trial court reduced the $524 million jury award to about $366 million on post-trial motions. Health Plan of Nevada appealed in December 2013, and no source confirms how that appeal was finally resolved.
- $105.2 millionVerdictReduced from $281 million
The $281 Million Dimmit County Verdict for the Family of an Army Veteran Killed by a Drive Shaft That Flew Off a Fracking-Water 18-Wheeler, Reduced to $105.2 Million on Post-Trial Motions and Settled Confidentially in July 2014
A unanimous Dimmit County jury awarded $281 million, including $181 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages, to the family of Carlos Aguilar, a 31-year-old Army veteran and father of seven killed when a drive shaft broke off a Heckmann Water Resources 18-wheeler and crashed through the windshield of the pickup he was riding in. Gene S. Hagood of Alvin tried the case with Laredo co-counsel John R. Solis and Jose Luis Castillo. The honest frame: the trial court reduced the judgment to $163.8 million and then to $105.2 million on post-trial motions, and in July 2014 the case settled on confidential terms, with parent company Nuverra disclosing it funded $5.5 million of the settlement alongside an undisclosed insurer payment.
After trial: Judgment reduced to $105.2 million on post-trial motions; settled confidentially with court approval in July 2014, with parent company Nuverra disclosing a $5.5 million contribution plus an undisclosed insurer payment.
- $59.7 millionSettlementGroup recovery
Seven Sandusky Survivors, One Firm: Ross Feller Casey Represented More Penn State Claimants Than Any Other Single Firm in the $59.7 Million Global Settlement
Joel Feller and Matt Casey of Ross Feller Casey represented seven of the 26 survivors who reached a global civil settlement with Penn State University totaling $59.7 million, the largest single-firm contingent in the proceedings.
After trial: Global; RFC clients' individual allocations undisclosed.
Ross Feller Casey2013 · Penn State University / federal and state civil proceedingsRead the full story → - $41.7 millionVerdictOn appeal
Federal Jury Awards $41.7 Million After a School Trip to China Left a Student Unable to Speak, and the Connecticut Supreme Court Says Schools Owe a Duty to Warn
A federal jury awarded Cara Munn $41.7 million after she contracted tick-borne encephalitis on a school-sponsored trip to China and lost the ability to speak, and the Connecticut Supreme Court later held that schools can owe students a duty to warn about and protect against insect-borne disease on trips abroad.
After trial: Hotchkiss appealed to the Second Circuit, which certified two questions to the Connecticut Supreme Court. In August 2017 the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled against Hotchkiss on both the duty question and remittitur, and the verdict was affirmed as final.
Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, P.C.2013 · U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut, No. 3:09-cv-919, with certified questions decided by the Connecticut Supreme Court at 326 Conn. 540 (2017)Read the full story → - $40 millionSettlementPaid
$40 Million After a 6-Year-Old Drowned When His Arm Was Trapped in a Backyard Pool Drain Built Without Required Safety Devices
On July 26, 2007, a 6-year-old boy drowned in his family's backyard pool in Greenwich when his arm was sucked into a wall drain feeding a spillover spa. Connecticut had required dual drains and a vacuum-release device since 2004, a year before the pool was permitted, and the builder had installed neither. The pool company's president pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide in 2011, the first such prosecution of a pool builder in the country. By May 2013 the parents, Brian and Karen Cohn, had settled with all nine defendants for a combined $40 million, all of it directed to the water-safety foundation they created in their son's name.
After trial: The $40 million is the sum of five separately negotiated settlements with nine defendants, completed by May 2013, as itemised by Pool & Spa News and Aquatics International citing the Connecticut Law Tribune. The Town of Greenwich's $10 million share was a public municipal payment.
- $38.6 millionVerdict
San Francisco Jury Awards $38.6 Million for Stroke Patient Left With Brain-Stem Injury
Conor Kelly and Melinda Derish proved that a Bakersfield hospitalist never examined Kody Myrick or ordered a neurology consult, letting a treatable basilar-artery stroke destroy his brain stem, and a San Francisco jury fixed his damages at $38.6 million.
- $36.95 millionVerdictReduced from $43.1 million
The Seatback Collapsed in a Crash She Should Have Walked Away From. It Was the Largest Civil Verdict in Vermont History.
A Chittenden County jury returned $43,101,162 against Johnson Controls, the seat manufacturer, after a Vermont woman was left with a catastrophic spinal-cord injury when the single-sided recliner mechanism in her car seat collapsed during a rear-end collision she should have survived. The trial court entered final judgment at $36,948,123, and the appeal was later dismissed by stipulation.
After trial: The figure that stands is the judgment, not the verdict, and the two differ by more than six million dollars. The Chittenden Unit jury returned $43,101,162.33 in June 2013, itemised as $621,171.33 past medical, $26,522,032 future medical, $355,024 past lost income, $1,247,935 future lost income and $14,373,000 past and future pain and suffering.
- $35 millionVerdict
$35 Million Verdict for Kirkpatrick Family After Fatal DUI Crash on Tamiami Trail
Goldberg & Rosen attorneys Judd and Brett Rosen secured a $35 million jury verdict against drunk driver Thomas Cypress, whose blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit when he killed retired Maryland couple Robert and Paulette Kirkpatrick on Tamiami Trail in 2009, producing what was at the time the largest damages award for surviving adult children in Florida history.
- $34.9 millionVerdict
$34.9 Million Verdict for Bus Driver Left Paralyzed After Jackknifed Silva Trucking Rig
A Sacramento County jury awarded $34,921,215 to Debra Hackett and her husband after a Silva Trucking tractor-trailer jackknifed on Highway 12 and left Debra paralyzed from the waist down with a traumatic brain injury.
- $30 millionVerdictGroup recoveryReduced from $190 million
New York's Largest Asbestos Verdict: $190 Million for Five Tradesmen with Mesothelioma
A Manhattan jury returned a $190 million consolidated verdict against boiler manufacturers Cleaver-Brooks and Burnham LLC on behalf of five tri-state tradesmen who developed mesothelioma from occupational asbestos exposure, setting a record as the largest consolidated asbestos verdict in New York history.
After trial: Reduced on post-trial motions to just under $30 million combined across the five plaintiffs.
- $28.6 millionVerdict
$28.6 Million Verdict Against a Husband for a Brutal Assault on His Former Wife
A jury in the Stamford-Norwalk Judicial District awarded Mary Margaret Farren $28.6 million after finding that her former husband, David Farren, attacked her with a hammer and a knife during their divorce proceedings, leaving her with severe and permanent injuries.
After trial: The Connecticut Supreme Court affirmed the verdict, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in October 2016, making the judgment final.
Silver Golub & Teitell LLP2013 · Stamford-Norwalk Judicial District, ConnecticutRead the full story → - $25 millionVerdict
$25 Million Verdict Against Cardiologist Who Read Blocked Arteries as Normal
A Hampton jury awarded Christopher Denton $25 million after a cardiologist read his cardiac test results as normal, diagnosed a minor heart infection, and sent him home on over-the-counter medication -- months before Denton suffered a massive heart attack that left him functioning with roughly half his cardiac capacity.
- $20.45 millionSettlement
$20.452 Million Settlement for Pedestrian Who Lost Leg in AC Transit Bus Crash
GJEL attorney Luke Ellis secured a then-record $20.452 million settlement for an 18-year-old who lost her left leg when an AC Transit bus struck her in Montclair, California, the largest individual recovery against any bus company in California history.
GJEL Accident Attorneys2013 · Alameda County Superior Court (Docket RG12647237)Read the full story → - $20 millionSettlementPaid
Cook County Pays $20 Million After a Toddler's Heart Stopped Unnoticed for Five Minutes Following Routine Surgery at Stroger Hospital
In December 2011 a 2-year-old boy went into cardiac arrest after surgery at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County to repair an undescended testicle. Doctors and nurses did not notice that his heart had stopped for about five minutes before starting CPR. The oxygen loss left him with permanent brain damage; he cannot walk or speak and needs round-the-clock nursing care. On February 5, 2013, the Cook County Board approved a $20 million settlement of the malpractice suit his mother filed, one of the largest in county history. Timothy Ashe represented the family.
After trial: The $20,000,000 settlement was approved by the Cook County Board of Commissioners on February 5, 2013, and is funded by the county. No appeal; the case resolved before trial.
Schwartz Jambois2013 · Circuit Court of Cook County, Chicago (settlement approved by the Cook County Board of Commissioners)Read the full story → - $18.5 millionSettlement
$18.5 Million Settlement for Boy Who Lost Leg When City Garbage Truck Made Dangerous Turn
San Diego agreed to pay $18.5 million, the largest settlement of its kind in city history, after a nine-year-old lost his left leg when a city garbage truck executed a dangerous multi-point turn through an intersection he was crossing on a skateboard.
- $16.6 millionSettlementGroup recovery
Lincoln Park Porch Collapse: $16.6 Million for 13 Killed and Dozens Hurt
After one of the deadliest building failures in Chicago history, Corboy & Demetrio's Francis Patrick Murphy led 14 of the victims and their families to a $16.6 million global settlement against the property owner and the porch builder.
- $15 millionVerdict
$15 Million Dram Shop Verdict Against Bessemer BP Store Upheld by Alabama Supreme Court
A Bessemer jury returned a $15 million verdict against the owners of a BP convenience store that sold beer to an underage driver whose vehicle struck a tree, killing a 13-year-old passenger and injuring three others in May 2007.
Hare Wynn Newell & Newton2013 · Circuit Court, Jefferson County (Bessemer Division), Alabama; affirmed by Alabama Supreme Court (Nov 2015)Read the full story → - $13.6 millionVerdictReduced from $130 millionPaid
Third Trial Ends in $130 Million Birth Injury Verdict Against St. Charles Hospital
A Suffolk County jury awarded $130 million to a girl who developed cerebral palsy after oxygen deprivation during her 2002 delivery at St. Charles Hospital, after Thomas A. Moore of Kramer, Dillof, Livingston & Moore tried the case three times; appellate review later cut the pain and suffering award to $4.25 million, and the firm reports the case resolved for $13.6 million in cash plus lifetime Medical Indemnity Fund coverage.
After trial: Reduced post-trial and on appeal: pain and suffering set at $4.25M (143 AD3d 692, 2d Dept 2016); per the firm, resolved for $13.6M cash plus lifetime Medical Indemnity Fund coverage.
- $13.6 millionVerdictReduced after trial
Iowa Jury Awards $13.6 Million to Man Paralyzed by Off-Duty Officer Running Red Light at 61 MPH
A Black Hawk County jury returned a $13.6 million verdict for Jarvis Lee Boggs, paralyzed when a Waterloo police officer ran a red light at 61 mph without lights or siren and slammed into his car at 12:45 a.m. on New Year's Eve 2008.
After trial: Net $10.2 million after comparative fault.
All 2013 verdicts and settlements
57 results, largest first
Ellen Relkin served as court-appointed co-lead plaintiffs counsel in the DePuy ASR hip implant MDL, helping negotiate a $2.5 billion settlement for roughly 8,000 patients who required revision surgery after the metal-on-metal device failed.
A Clark County jury ordered Health Plan of Nevada and Sierra Health Services to pay $524 million after finding the UnitedHealth Group subsidiaries negligently credentialed a gastroenterologist whose unsafe injection practices at his Las Vegas endoscopy clinics caused the largest medically caused hepatitis C outbreak in American history.
An Essex County jury awarded $165.97 million against the State of New Jersey and its Division of Youth and Family Services for failing to remove an infant from his home despite his grandmother's abuse report, a verdict reported as the largest in state personal injury history. The trial judge cut it to $102.6 million on remittitur, and in April 2017 the Appellate Division reversed the judgment entirely on qualified immunity grounds under the Tort Claims Act. The family collected nothing from the State.
A nearly decade-long securities fraud class action against Fannie Mae and its former auditor KPMG, brought on behalf of Ohio pension funds holding millions in Fannie Mae stock, settled for $153 million after Bill Markovits served as lead counsel for the class.
A Los Angeles County jury awarded $150,750,000 against truck driver Rudolph Ortiz and Bhandal Bros. Trucking for a girl who was orphaned when her family's SUV struck an 18-wheeler parked without lights on the shoulder of the 210 Freeway and caught fire, killing her parents and eldest brother. Brian Brandt tried the case for the plaintiff. The verdict did not stand: on February 3, 2014, Judge Marc Marmaro granted the defense a new trial, finding the award excessive, and the case then settled in April 2014 on confidential terms before any retrial.
A unanimous Dimmit County jury awarded $281 million, including $181 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages, to the family of Carlos Aguilar, a 31-year-old Army veteran and father of seven killed when a drive shaft broke off a Heckmann Water Resources 18-wheeler and crashed through the windshield of the pickup he was riding in. Gene S. Hagood of Alvin tried the case with Laredo co-counsel John R. Solis and Jose Luis Castillo. The honest frame: the trial court reduced the judgment to $163.8 million and then to $105.2 million on post-trial motions, and in July 2014 the case settled on confidential terms, with parent company Nuverra disclosing it funded $5.5 million of the settlement alongside an undisclosed insurer payment.
Joel Feller and Matt Casey of Ross Feller Casey represented seven of the 26 survivors who reached a global civil settlement with Penn State University totaling $59.7 million, the largest single-firm contingent in the proceedings.
A federal jury awarded Cara Munn $41.7 million after she contracted tick-borne encephalitis on a school-sponsored trip to China and lost the ability to speak, and the Connecticut Supreme Court later held that schools can owe students a duty to warn about and protect against insect-borne disease on trips abroad.
On July 26, 2007, a 6-year-old boy drowned in his family's backyard pool in Greenwich when his arm was sucked into a wall drain feeding a spillover spa. Connecticut had required dual drains and a vacuum-release device since 2004, a year before the pool was permitted, and the builder had installed neither. The pool company's president pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide in 2011, the first such prosecution of a pool builder in the country. By May 2013 the parents, Brian and Karen Cohn, had settled with all nine defendants for a combined $40 million, all of it directed to the water-safety foundation they created in their son's name.
Conor Kelly and Melinda Derish proved that a Bakersfield hospitalist never examined Kody Myrick or ordered a neurology consult, letting a treatable basilar-artery stroke destroy his brain stem, and a San Francisco jury fixed his damages at $38.6 million.
A Chittenden County jury returned $43,101,162 against Johnson Controls, the seat manufacturer, after a Vermont woman was left with a catastrophic spinal-cord injury when the single-sided recliner mechanism in her car seat collapsed during a rear-end collision she should have survived. The trial court entered final judgment at $36,948,123, and the appeal was later dismissed by stipulation.
Goldberg & Rosen attorneys Judd and Brett Rosen secured a $35 million jury verdict against drunk driver Thomas Cypress, whose blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit when he killed retired Maryland couple Robert and Paulette Kirkpatrick on Tamiami Trail in 2009, producing what was at the time the largest damages award for surviving adult children in Florida history.
A Sacramento County jury awarded $34,921,215 to Debra Hackett and her husband after a Silva Trucking tractor-trailer jackknifed on Highway 12 and left Debra paralyzed from the waist down with a traumatic brain injury.
A Manhattan jury returned a $190 million consolidated verdict against boiler manufacturers Cleaver-Brooks and Burnham LLC on behalf of five tri-state tradesmen who developed mesothelioma from occupational asbestos exposure, setting a record as the largest consolidated asbestos verdict in New York history.
Cohen & Malad's Irwin Levin secured a $30 million class action settlement in 2013 after proving the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles had been charging drivers as much as $6 too much per license for six years.
A jury in the Stamford-Norwalk Judicial District awarded Mary Margaret Farren $28.6 million after finding that her former husband, David Farren, attacked her with a hammer and a knife during their divorce proceedings, leaving her with severe and permanent injuries.
A Hampton jury awarded Christopher Denton $25 million after a cardiologist read his cardiac test results as normal, diagnosed a minor heart infection, and sent him home on over-the-counter medication -- months before Denton suffered a massive heart attack that left him functioning with roughly half his cardiac capacity.
GJEL attorney Luke Ellis secured a then-record $20.452 million settlement for an 18-year-old who lost her left leg when an AC Transit bus struck her in Montclair, California, the largest individual recovery against any bus company in California history.
In December 2011 a 2-year-old boy went into cardiac arrest after surgery at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County to repair an undescended testicle. Doctors and nurses did not notice that his heart had stopped for about five minutes before starting CPR. The oxygen loss left him with permanent brain damage; he cannot walk or speak and needs round-the-clock nursing care. On February 5, 2013, the Cook County Board approved a $20 million settlement of the malpractice suit his mother filed, one of the largest in county history. Timothy Ashe represented the family.
San Diego agreed to pay $18.5 million, the largest settlement of its kind in city history, after a nine-year-old lost his left leg when a city garbage truck executed a dangerous multi-point turn through an intersection he was crossing on a skateboard.
After one of the deadliest building failures in Chicago history, Corboy & Demetrio's Francis Patrick Murphy led 14 of the victims and their families to a $16.6 million global settlement against the property owner and the porch builder.
A Bessemer jury returned a $15 million verdict against the owners of a BP convenience store that sold beer to an underage driver whose vehicle struck a tree, killing a 13-year-old passenger and injuring three others in May 2007.
A Black Hawk County jury returned a $13.6 million verdict for Jarvis Lee Boggs, paralyzed when a Waterloo police officer ran a red light at 61 mph without lights or siren and slammed into his car at 12:45 a.m. on New Year's Eve 2008.
A Suffolk County jury awarded $130 million to a girl who developed cerebral palsy after oxygen deprivation during her 2002 delivery at St. Charles Hospital, after Thomas A. Moore of Kramer, Dillof, Livingston & Moore tried the case three times; appellate review later cut the pain and suffering award to $4.25 million, and the firm reports the case resolved for $13.6 million in cash plus lifetime Medical Indemnity Fund coverage.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.