Top Individual Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements of 2013

$1.1 Billion Verdict Over Nursing Home Resident's 17 Falls, Never Paid by Insolvent Defendants

A Polk County jury awarded $110 million in compensatory damages and $1 billion in punitive damages over the death of 69-year-old Arlene Townsend, who fell 17 times at the Auburndale Oaks Healthcare Center, in a Wilkes & McHugh case against Trans Healthcare entities that had defaulted, stopped defending, and were already insolvent and in receivership, which is why the judgment was largely symbolic and the estate ultimately recovered only a small share of a later multi-estate settlement.

After trial: Default judgment against insolvent, receivership-bound defendants; never paid. The estate later shared a $23.7M six-estate bankruptcy settlement.

$524 Million Verdict Against UnitedHealth Subsidiaries Over a 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.

$130 Million Verdict Against St. Charles Hospital for Birth Injury

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.

$281 Million Verdict for Army Veteran Killed by Flying Drive Shaft

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 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.

$58.5 Million Verdict for Family of Man Killed by Tanker Truck Near Carlsbad, New Mexico

A New Mexico jury awarded $58.5 million, believed at the time to be the state's largest truck verdict, to the family of Kevin Udy, a mechanical engineer killed in 2010 when a tanker truck turned into his path on a highway near Carlsbad.

$50 Million Verdict for Parents Whose Prenatal Genetic Test Missed the One Defect It Was Ordered to Find

A King County jury awarded $50 million to Rhea and Brock Wuth after Valley Medical Center failed to send LabCorp the family genetic report needed to screen for a known chromosome translocation and LabCorp ran only a routine karyotype without asking for it, leaving the couple's son to be born with the unbalanced translocation the testing was meant to detect. The verdict was affirmed on appeal in 2015.

After trial: Valley Medical Center settled during the appeal; the Washington Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict against LabCorp in August 2015 and review was denied in 2016.

$41.7 Million Verdict for Student Unable to Speak After Tick-Borne Encephalitis on School Trip to China

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.

$40 Million Settlement After 6-Year-Old Drowned in Backyard Pool Drain Built Without 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, including $10 million from the Town of Greenwich. The proceeds went to the family's foundation.

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.

$43.1 Million Vermont Record Verdict for Woman Paralyzed by Collapsed Seatback

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: Reduced. The jury returned $43,101,162.33 in June 2013, and the trial court entered final judgment for $36,948,123. See more

$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 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.

$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. See more

$55.2 Million Verdict for Teen Shot Nine Times and Left a Double Amputee, $27 Million After Apportionment

Antonio Steward, a 17-year-old student, was sitting on a stairwell outside his family's Fontana apartment at 12:30 a.m. on August 26, 2006, when a Crips gang member from a nearby group of ten men drinking and partying in violation of the complex rules shot him nine times. The Stratus Security guard on duty had spoken to the group about a noise complaint and then walked to his car to write a report. Gangrene cost Steward both legs above the knee that day, and he went through 56 more surgeries that removed 40 percent of his stomach. On June 13, 2013, after a trifurcated trial, a San Bernardino County jury found the security companies and their owners 49 percent at fault and set his damages at $55,151,509.72; after apportionment under California's several-liability rule he recovers $27,024,239.76.

After trial: Reduced by apportionment. The jury's $55,151,509.72 damages finding was apportioned 49 percent to the security defendants, 49 percent to the shooter and 2 percent to the plaintiff, giving a recoverable judgment of $27,024,239.76. See more

$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 Million Cook County Settlement After Toddler's Heart Stopped Unnoticed for Five Minutes Post-Surgery

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.

Philadelphia Jury Awards $19.15 Million to Man Who Lost His Right Leg in Two Roosevelt Boulevard Crashes

A young man helping push a disabled car off Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia was crushed in a second collision in July 2009 and later lost his right leg above the knee. In May 2013 a Philadelphia jury awarded Patrick Hennessy $19,145,904.17 against two drivers and assigned 45 percent of the causal negligence to the driver of the car he had been riding in. In April 2014 the trial judge rejected that driver's post-trial challenges, including his request to reduce the award.

After trial: The trial judge denied Caruso's post-trial motions in April 2014 and Caruso noted an appeal. We could not confirm how the appeal was resolved or whether the judgment has been paid.

$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.

Cook County Jury Awards $15.55 Million After Teacher Dies From Undiagnosed Placenta Condition in Childbirth

Karen Lopez, a 33-year-old teacher, died in February 2008 after hemorrhaging during a cesarean delivery. Her husband sued over a placenta condition that was not diagnosed beforehand or properly managed. In November 2013 a Cook County jury found University of Chicago Hospital and two physicians liable and awarded $15.55 million. MacNeal Hospital was found not liable.

After trial: University of Chicago Medicine said it was reviewing its options after the verdict. We found no appellate opinion or post-trial reduction, and could not confirm payment.

$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.