Top Individual Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements of 2016
The 20 largest individual personal injury results from 2016, nationwide on record here, ranked by amount: one client's, one family's, or one incident's recovery, never a pooled fund. Each links to the full story, the firm, and the record behind the number.
- $543 millionVerdictReduced from $1.04 billion
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 Lanier Law Firm and Walkup Personal Injury Lawyers2016 · U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, Dallas (MDL 2244)Read the full story → - $85 millionVerdictReduced from $125.2 million
$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).
Dordick Law Corporation2016 · Ventura County Superior Court, Ventura, California (Case No. 56-2013-00435440-CU-PA-VTA)Read the full story → - $60.7 millionSettlement
$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 millionVerdict
$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.
Greene Broillet & Wheeler and Kinnard Clayton & Beveridge2016 · Davidson County Circuit Court, Nashville, TennesseeRead the full story → - $53 millionVerdict
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.
Fieger, Fieger, Kenney & Harrington, P.C.2016 · Cook County Circuit Court, Chicago, ILRead the full story → - $52.05 millionReduced from $53 million
$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.
- $46 millionVerdict
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.
Robinson Calcagnie, Inc.2016 · San Bernardino County Superior Court, CaliforniaRead the full story → - $45 millionVerdict
$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 millionVerdict
$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 millionVerdict
$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.
- $38 millionVerdict
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 millionVerdict
$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 millionVerdict
$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 millionSettlement
$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 millionSettlement
$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.
- $24 millionSettlement
$24 Million Settlement for Woman Paralyzed in I-680 Crash Triggered by Good Samaritan Pursuit
A 27-year-old Bay Area woman suffered permanent paralysis after an Acura dealership employee, acting as a self-appointed Good Samaritan, forced her vehicle off I-680 and into a catastrophic rollover; the case settled for $24 million, the largest personal-injury settlement in Northern California for 2016.
- $20 millionSettlement
$20 Million Settlement After NICU Feeding-Tube Error Left Premature Infant With Cerebral Palsy
A Southern California hospital agreed to the largest medical malpractice settlement in California history after a NICU nursing error with a feeding machine caused glucose overload and permanent brain damage in a five-week-premature newborn.
- $20 millionVerdict
$20 Million Verdict for Immigrant Left with Catastrophic Brain Injury After Truck Ran Red Light
A Cobb County jury awarded $20 million after a tractor-trailer ran a red light in Kennesaw and left a 57-year-old Pakistani immigrant with permanent, catastrophic brain damage.
- $20 millionSettlement
Xbox Designer Paralyzed After Overlake Hospital Missed Spinal Fracture Four Times: $20 Million Settlement
August de los Reyes, head of design for Microsoft's Xbox, was left permanently paralyzed from the chest down after Overlake Hospital staff failed to diagnose his spinal fracture across four emergency visits, and Luvera Law Firm secured a $20 million settlement that also required the hospital to partner with him on patient-safety reform.
- $18.74 millionVerdict
Jury Awards $18.74 Million for Brain Injury in Pete's Bar Assault
A Duval County jury returned an $18.74 million verdict after Joshua Mathews suffered a traumatic brain injury in a 2012 assault outside Pete's Bar in Neptune Beach.
All 2016 verdicts and settlements
82 results, largest first
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A 27-year-old Bay Area woman suffered permanent paralysis after an Acura dealership employee, acting as a self-appointed Good Samaritan, forced her vehicle off I-680 and into a catastrophic rollover; the case settled for $24 million, the largest personal-injury settlement in Northern California for 2016.
August de los Reyes, head of design for Microsoft's Xbox, was left permanently paralyzed from the chest down after Overlake Hospital staff failed to diagnose his spinal fracture across four emergency visits, and Luvera Law Firm secured a $20 million settlement that also required the hospital to partner with him on patient-safety reform.
A Cobb County jury awarded $20 million after a tractor-trailer ran a red light in Kennesaw and left a 57-year-old Pakistani immigrant with permanent, catastrophic brain damage.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.