Top Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements of 2016

Dallas Jury Awards $1.04 Billion Against J&J Over Defective Pinnacle Hip Implants

A Dallas federal jury awarded $1.04 billion to six California patients harmed by Johnson and Johnson's metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implants, with W. Mark Lanier leading an eight-week trial that produced one of the largest product-liability verdicts of 2016.

After trial: Reduced to about $543 million under punitive damages caps; the Pinnacle claims later resolved in a roughly $1 billion global settlement in 2019.

The Amtrak 188 Derailment and the $265 Million Fund for Its Victims

After Amtrak Train 188 derailed in Philadelphia in May 2015, killing eight and injuring more than 200, Kline & Specter's Thomas R. Kline led the plaintiffs' negotiations that produced a $265 million settlement fund for the victims.

Bronx Jury Awards $183 Million After City's Removal of Safety Ropes Trapped Six Firefighters in 2005 Blaze

A Bronx jury in February 2016 awarded $183 million to five FDNY firefighters and the families of those killed after the city was found 80% liable for removing personal safety ropes years before a 2005 Bronx tenement fire that forced six firefighters to jump from a fourth-floor window.

After trial: The families settled for $29.5 million in September 2016 rather than risk an appellate reduction. The landlord, found 20 percent at fault, settled just before the verdict; reports put the city's share at $140 million to $146 million, and no judgment was found.

$125 Million Verdict for Man Paralyzed by Drunk, Sleepless Driver in Oxnard

Francisco Briones, 21, was turning left on a green light on his way to a 5 a.m. warehouse shift in Oxnard on March 23, 2013, when Christopher Zink, drunk at 0.14 percent, awake for 24 hours and asleep at the wheel, ran a red light at about 50 mph and hit him. Briones' C4-5 vertebrae ruptured and he was paralyzed from the neck down. Zink pleaded guilty to felony DUI causing injury and went to prison for seven years; his insurer, Nationwide, had refused a timely policy-limits demand. On January 22, 2016, a Ventura County jury found Zink 100 percent at fault, found malice, and awarded $125,168,202, half of it punitive damages. The court rejected Zink's Proposition 213 motion to strip the pain-and-suffering award but reduced the judgment post-trial to about $85 million.

After trial: Reduced. The court denied the motion to eliminate the noneconomic damages and reduced the $125,168,202 verdict post-trial to approximately $85 million (Daily Journal, 2016). See more

Jackson County Courthouse Asbestos Exposure Settles for $80 Million

Two former Jackson County Courthouse employees sued U.S. Engineering Co. and Jackson County over asbestos dust that spread through the courthouse during a mid-1980s renovation, after a co-worker died of mesothelioma. A trial judge refused to certify a class, and in March 2015 the Missouri Court of Appeals reversed that ruling and reinstated the case. A jury had been selected for an October 2016 trial in Jackson County Circuit Court when the parties settled for $80 million, funded by U.S. Engineering's insurers rather than county tax dollars. The settlement set aside $25 million for attorneys' fees and litigation costs and put the remainder into a medical monitoring fund covering diagnostic testing for up to 7,500 people who worked in or spent significant time in the courthouse. Louis C. Accurso represented the plaintiffs.

After trial: Class settlement of $80 million: $25 million for attorneys' fees and costs and a 30-year medical monitoring fund for up to 7,500 eligible people. Reporting says the fund was paid through the contractor's insurers, not county tax dollars. See more

$60.7 Million Settlement for Child Left with Brain Injury After Touching Downed FirstEnergy Power Line

A 12-year-old Cleveland girl suffered a profound brain injury and partial limb loss after touching an energized, downed Cleveland Electric Illuminating power line that had been left unrepaired for days following Hurricane Sandy; her family settled all claims for $60.7 million, the largest individual personal injury settlement in Ohio history.

$55 Million Verdict for Fox Sports Broadcaster Secretly Filmed at Nashville Marriott

A Davidson County jury awarded Fox Sports reporter Erin Andrews $55 million after finding that the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt negligently disclosed her room location to a stalker who altered a peephole to film her without consent.

A Record $53 Million Cook County Verdict for a Delayed Delivery

Geoffrey Fieger and Jack Beam won the largest birth-injury verdict in Cook County history against the University of Chicago Medical Center, after a mother in fetal distress was left without an obstetrician for hours before an emergency cesarean.

$52 Million Judgment After 11-Hour Delay Before Emergency Cesarean Leaves Newborn With Cerebral Palsy

A Cook County jury found that staff at University of Chicago Medical Center let a newborn boy go without an emergency cesarean section for roughly 11 hours despite a non-reassuring fetal heart tracing, leaving him with severe hypoxic brain damage and cerebral palsy. On June 29, 2016, after nearly a month of trial, the jury awarded the family $53 million, broken down across past and future medical costs, lifelong caretaking, lost earning capacity, and pain and suffering. The hospital sought a mistrial over alleged misconduct by plaintiff's counsel; a Cook County judge denied that motion in December 2016 and instead trimmed the award by $950,000, entering judgment at $52,050,000. The hospital said it would appeal further, and no independent source confirms what became of that appeal.

After trial: Reduced. The trial court denied a mistrial in December 2016 and cut the jury's $53 million verdict by $950,000, entering judgment at $52,050,000 in early January 2017. See more

$50 Million Settlement for Three Families After IKEA MALM Dressers Fatally Crush Toddlers

Feldman Shepherd secured a combined $50 million settlement from IKEA on behalf of three families whose toddler sons were fatally crushed by MALM dressers, a result that preceded a nationwide recall of approximately 29 million chests and dressers.

$46.5 Million Verdict Against Monsanto for PCB-Caused Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

A St. Louis jury awarded $46.5 million to three plaintiffs who developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after PCB exposure, delivering the first plaintiff verdict of its kind against Monsanto in the city.

Roadside Pedestrian Struck by Nissan Delivery Driver Wins $46 Million Verdict

On September 10, 2013, Faustino Torres Solorio was standing at the tailgate of a truck that had run out of gas and pulled onto the shoulder in San Bernardino County when a car driven by Gunnar Ayala, a parts delivery driver for Nissan of Fontana, struck him. Ayala was cited for an unsafe turning movement, and the officer at the scene concluded Solorio did nothing to cause the crash. He suffered multiple broken bones, deep lacerations, a lacerated spleen and an above-the-knee amputation of his left leg. The dealerships argued Ayala was an independent contractor, or at least outside the course and scope of his job at the moment of the crash. A San Bernardino County Superior Court jury found otherwise and awarded Solorio $46 million on August 9, 2016. No appeal has surfaced in the years since.

$45 Million for Four Children Who Lost Their Mother in a Drunk-Driver Crash at a Boyle Heights Taco Truck

A Los Angeles jury awarded $45 million to the four children of Claudia Fernandez after a drunk driver, whose vehicle owner negligently handed over her keys, struck and killed her at a Boyle Heights taco truck in 2012.

$44.1 Million Verdict After Penn Hospital Ignored Rising Anticoagulant Levels and Left Woman Bedridden

A Philadelphia jury awarded Andrea Tate $44.1 million after the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania stopped monitoring her blood-clotting levels mid-treatment, allowing heparin to build to a dangerous concentration that caused a massive brain hemorrhage following routine tumor surgery.

$41.9 Million Verdict Against Applebee's After Underage Drinkers Served, Passenger Left Quadriplegic

A Hernando County jury awarded $41.9 million to Patrick Osmond, who was rendered quadriplegic when a pickup truck crashed after Applebee's served him and his companions a pitcher of beer despite none of them being 21.

Jury Awards $38 Million to Seattle Commuter Cyclist Disabled by Valet Driver Taking Illegal Shortcut

A King County jury awarded $38 million to Thyce Colyn, a commuter cyclist who suffered permanent brain damage and a shattered pelvis after a Standard Parking valet driver struck him while cutting illegally across 8th Avenue in downtown Seattle.

$37.5 Million Jury Verdict for Man Paralyzed When Semi Struck His Car on I-435

A Jackson County jury awarded $37.5 million to Steven Holdeman, who was left a paraplegic after a semi-truck rear-ended his car on Interstate 435, finding Philip Stratman 99 percent at fault for stalling his vehicle in the center lane.

$30.5 Million Verdict for Infant Brain-Damaged by Delayed C-Section at Gwinnett Medical Center

A Gwinnett County jury awarded $30.5 million in November 2016 after finding that Gwinnett Medical Center and an attending physician failed to act on an ultrasound showing abnormal fetal blood flow at 35 weeks, delaying an emergency C-section long enough to deprive a newborn of oxygen and cause permanent spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy.

$30 Million Settlement After Surgeon Performed 25 Experimental Procedures on an Infant

Romanucci and Blandin recovered $30 million for a family whose infant son suffered permanent brain damage and cerebral palsy after a pediatric surgeon at Rush University Medical Center performed 25 experimental surgeries, severing the child's pulmonary artery during the final operation.

$26.55 Million Settlement for TruGreen Landscaper Left Quadriplegic by Bald Tire Rollover

Robert Mongeluzzi secured a then-record $26.55 million Philadelphia County settlement for David Williams, a TruGreen lawn-care worker who was left quadriplegic after a company truck rolled over on a Clinton County highway due to a bald tire the defendants had failed to replace even after their own inspection flagged it.