Top Individual Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements of 2014

$172 Million Bronx Verdict After EMTs Arrived Without Oxygen or Defibrillator and Told Family to Wait

Thomas Moore won a $172 million jury verdict in Bronx Supreme Court for a woman left with catastrophic brain damage after FDNY EMTs responded to her 1998 cardiac arrest without essential equipment and advised her family to wait for a second ambulance instead of transporting her immediately.

After trial: No appellate decision is on the public record; the headline number was never tested on appeal.

Montgomery County Jury Awards $124.26 Million to Estate of Woman Killed by Her Husband

A Montgomery County jury awarded the estate of Ellen Gregory Robb $124.26 million in November 2014 against her husband, a former Penn economics professor who killed her in 2006 and pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Of the total, $100 million was punitive damages. The proceeds were for the couple's daughter, the estate's beneficiary. The award stood after Robb's post-trial challenge, though collection was limited to his retirement and investment assets.

After trial: Robb asked the trial court in December 2014 to reduce the $100 million punitive portion, and the sources reviewed report no reduction. Collection was limited: in 2019 Robb settled by giving up 75 percent of his pension and investment assets, which resolved the judgment. See more

Queens Jury's $62 Million Fall Verdict Settles for $6 Million During Appeal

A Queens County jury awarded Zeng Guang Lin, an immigrant construction worker who was 20 when he fell 20 feet from a roof at a Bronx job site, $62,060,086.27 on December 17, 2014 after finding property owner Hutch Realty Partners LLC and contractor Gamut Consulting Inc. liable under New York Labor Law for failing to provide him fall protection. Lin suffered a traumatic brain injury along with spinal fractures, rib fractures, a lacerated spleen, a renal hematoma, and lung contusions. Hutch Realty filed post-trial motions and appealed, and while both were pending the case settled for $6,000,000, against a judgment the defense firm on the appeal puts at $68 million. Benedict Morelli tried the case for Lin; trade-press coverage at the time identified his firm as the Morelli, Alters and Ratner Law Firm, the practice known today as Morelli Law Firm PLLC.

After trial: Reduced by settlement. Hutch Realty Partners appealed, and the case settled for $6,000,000 before the appeal was resolved, according to a defense-firm case summary. See more

Quadriplegic Driver's $55.3 Million Verdict Against Honda Over a Defective Seat Belt

A Philadelphia jury found that a defectively designed seat belt in a 1999 Acura Integra left driver Carlos Martinez a quadriplegic after a rollover on Interstate 70 near Baltimore, and awarded him and his wife $55,325,714. Stewart J. Eisenberg and Daniel J. Sherry Jr., then of Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck (now Eisenberg Winkler Jeck Schwartz Schoenhaus & Sherry), tried the case against Honda. The trial court denied Honda's post-trial motions and entered judgment on the full verdict plus $2,066,002 in delay damages, a molded judgment of $57,391,716. Honda appealed, arguing that a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision handed down while its post-trial motion was pending had rewritten the state's products liability standard. On April 19, 2017, the Pennsylvania Superior Court rejected every argument Honda raised and affirmed.

After trial: Affirmed. The trial court denied Honda's post-trial motions and molded the verdict to $57,391,716 with delay damages, and the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed on April 19, 2017 (No. See more

Philadelphia Jury Awards $45 Million to Woman Held Captive for Over a Decade in Tacony Basement

A Philadelphia jury returned a $45 million verdict in favor of Tamara Breeden, a mentally disabled woman who was confined, abused, and robbed of her Social Security benefits for more than a decade by Linda Ann Weston and two associates.

$9 Billion Verdict Against Takeda and Eli Lilly in First Actos Bladder Cancer Trial

A Louisiana federal jury awarded Terrence Allen $9 billion in punitive damages against Takeda and Eli Lilly after finding they hid Actos's bladder cancer risk for years, with W. Mark Lanier serving as lead trial counsel in the first federal bellwether trial of the massive MDL.

After trial: In October 2014 Judge Rebecca Doherty cut the $9 billion punitive award by more than 99 percent, to $27.6 million against Takeda and $9.2 million against Eli Lilly, and the compensatory award to $1.27 million, about $38.1 million in all. Takeda resolved the Actos litigation in a global settlement of about $2.4 billion in April 2015.

Teen Passenger Left With a Brain Injury Wins $34.6 Million Against a Dump Truck Company

A Cuyahoga County jury awarded a combined $42.4 million in October 2014 to Joshua Rojas ($34.6 million) and Kiara Torres ($7.8 million), two teenage passengers who suffered brain injuries when the car they were riding in collided with a Concrete Designs Inc. dump truck; Andy Young, now of The Law Firm for Truck Safety, served as trial counsel, and in 2019 Ohio's Eighth District affirmed the verdicts while vacating a later prejudgment interest award.

After trial: The Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals affirmed both verdicts in April 2019 but vacated the prejudgment interest award.

Jury Awards Former Smoker With COPD $27 Million Against Philip Morris USA

A federal jury in Jacksonville found for Judith Berger, a forty-year smoker with end-stage COPD, on all claims against Philip Morris USA in September 2014. It awarded $6,250,000 in compensatory damages and $20,760,000.14 in punitive damages. The trial court set aside the fraud claims and the punitive award, but the Eleventh Circuit reinstated them in 2018 and held in 2021 that the punitive award was not unconstitutionally excessive.

After trial: The Eleventh Circuit reinstated the punitive award in November 2018 and upheld it against a due process challenge in January 2021. Judith Berger died in 2017 and her estate carried the case forward. See more

$26.3 Million Verdict for Pedestrian Who Lost a Leg and Suffered Brain Injury in Laguna Niguel Crosswalk Crash

A jury awarded $26,255,367 to Maryam Hedayati after a driver ran a red light and struck her in a marked crosswalk, leaving her with a severed leg, a shattered leg, and catastrophic brain trauma.

Milwaukee Jury Awards $25.3 Million to Quadruple Amputee Over Undiagnosed Strep A Infection

A Milwaukee County jury awarded $25.3 million after emergency room providers failed to tell Ascaris Mayo that her symptoms could mean a Strep A infection, an omission that cost her all four limbs, though the Wisconsin Supreme Court later reinstated the state's $750,000 cap on noneconomic damages.

$22.5 Million Vermont Verdict for Lineman Who Lost Both Legs in High-Voltage Substation Arc

A Vermont jury awarded $22.5 million, the second-largest verdict in state history at the time, to a Maine utility lineman who lost both legs below the knee after an ungrounded, defectively installed air-break switch at a Richford substation released a 5,000-degree electrical arc through his body.

Paralyzed Worker's $35.94 Million Verdict Against Pepco

A Montgomery County, Maryland jury in October 2014 returned a verdict against Pepco for a construction worker who was shocked by a transformer he had been told was de-energized and left paralyzed from the neck down. The jury awarded about $35.94 million, and Maryland's cap on noneconomic damages cut the $15 million noneconomic portion to $770,000, leaving about $21.71 million.

After trial: Maryland's noneconomic damages cap reduced the $15 million noneconomic award to $770,000, leaving about $21.71 million. Pepco filed post-trial motions, and the case was later reported to have settled for a confidential amount. See more

$21.3 Million Verdict for Electrician Paralyzed by Garage Door Serviced Days Earlier

Electrician Ralph Parker was paralyzed from the chest down in April 2006 when an overhead garage door at an Indianapolis warehouse activated and pinned him against a beam. A Marion County jury found Professional Garage Door Systems 70 percent at fault for servicing the door a week earlier. The jury's awards of $26 million to Parker and $4.5 million to his wife were reduced by his share of fault, leaving $21.3 million.

After trial: The $21.3 million is the $30.5 million jury award after the 70 percent fault finding against the garage door company. We found no appellate decision or post-trial ruling and could not confirm whether the judgment was paid.

$19.61 Million Verdict for Driver Hurt When a Concrete Truck Signaled Left, Then Turned Right Into Him

Billy Moyle, 24, was driving behind a Mack concrete truck on US Highway 75 near Nebraska City on Halloween 2012. The truck moved into the left turn lane and then turned right across his path, running his pickup off the road. He suffered a broken vertebra and a partially severed spinal cord.

After trial: The jury returned $19,607,486 on January 29, 2014. Defense counsel said they were considering an appeal, and no appellate decision has been reported. See more

Nurses Ignored Pitocin Orders, Leaving Newborn with Spastic Quadriplegia: $18.27 Million Verdict

A Barren County jury awarded $18.27 million after finding that nurses at T.J. Samson Community Hospital disregarded the treating obstetrician's standing Pitocin orders during a 2007 delivery, depriving newborn Tristan Hamilton of oxygen and leaving him with spastic quadriplegia.

$16.7 Million Verdict After Radiologist Missed Lung Cancer on Chest X-Ray at Brigham and Women's

A Suffolk Superior Court jury awarded $16.7 million after a Brigham and Women's Hospital radiologist read a 2006 chest X-ray as normal, missing a visible lung nodule that would develop into terminal cancer within 13 months.

$12.1 Million Verdict for Family of Construction-Zone Inspector Killed on I-271

A Cuyahoga County jury awarded $39 million to the widow of a highway paving inspector struck and killed on Interstate 271 after the paving contractor failed to follow its court-approved safety plan.

After trial: The jury awarded $19 million in compensatory and $20 million in punitive damages, but it put 35 percent of the fault on the dismissed driver and 5 percent on Roginski, so the court entered $12.1 million in compensatory damages and, under Ohio's punitive cap, $47.50 in punitive damages.

$12 Million Verdict Over a Perforated Colon During Hernia Surgery

A Danbury jury awarded Vivian Gagliano and her husband roughly $12 million after her colon was perforated during hernia repair surgery at Danbury Hospital, and the Connecticut Supreme Court later affirmed the verdict, holding Danbury Hospital vicariously liable for the surgical resident who performed the procedure.

After trial: The verdict was affirmed by the Connecticut Supreme Court on August 10, 2018 (SC 19804) and is fully final. The trial itself took place in May 2014; some secondary sources round the year to 2015, but May 2014 is the date sourced here.

Union Laborer's Ten-Foot Fall From a Rolling Scaffold Settles for $9.9 Million

A union laborer fell about ten feet from a scaffold to the sidewalk after the owner and general contractor failed to give him a safe way to climb on and off it, and his back and heel injuries produced a $9.9 million settlement that VerdictSearch and the New York Law Journal ranked as the state's second-largest of 2014.

Niagara County Jury Awards $8.8 Million After Teen Loses Arm to Defective Post-Hole Digger

A Niagara County jury awarded $8.8 million to a 16-year-old girl whose right arm was severed by a tractor-driven post-hole digger with a defectively designed safety shield, a verdict the New York Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed in April 2014.

After trial: Every defendant except CNH and Niagara Frontier settled during trial for $4.6 million, and the jury put 35 percent of the fault on CNH and 2 percent on Niagara Frontier. The judgment entered against them, after New York's limits on noneconomic damages and the settlement credit, is not public.