Top Individual Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements of 2018

$1 Billion Verdict for Rape Victim Assaulted by Unlicensed Armed Security Guard

A Clayton County jury awarded $1 billion to a woman who was raped at age 14 by an armed security guard her employer hired without verifying he was licensed to carry a weapon.

After trial: Largely uncollectable: the security company that was found liable had already been dissolved before the verdict.

Family Awarded $247 Million After Truck Blocking Highway Killed Their Son

On February 13, 2016, 21-year-old Riley McPherson was killed on U.S. 271 near Gilmer, Texas, when his van struck the side of a Jefferson Trucking flatbed tractor-trailer that was blocking all four lanes of the highway while its driver, on hour 17 of a run home from Ohio, tried to back it into a private driveway. McPherson's parents, Eddie McPherson and Karen Pearson, sued Jefferson Trucking, driver Eric Wayne Jefferson, and Timothy Wayne Jefferson in the 115th District Court of Upshur County. On November 8, 2018, a jury apportioned 65 percent fault to Eric Jefferson, 20 percent to Jefferson Trucking, 10 percent to Timothy Jefferson, and 5 percent to McPherson, and set damages at $260 million, which the comparative-fault finding reduced to $247 million. The defendants appealed, then voluntarily dismissed their own appeal, leaving the trial court judgment intact.

After trial: Reduced by comparative fault. The $260 million damages finding was cut 5 percent for the plaintiff's own fault, for a $247 million net figure. See more

$242.1 Million Toyota Seatback Verdict for Two Brain-Injured Children

A Dallas County jury awarded $242.1 million to Benjamin and Kristi Reavis after the front seatbacks of their 2002 Lexus ES 300 collapsed in a rear-end crash and both parents were thrown into their two small children, who suffered permanent brain injuries. Frank L. Branson led the trial team from The Law Offices of Frank L. Branson, which included Debbie Branson. The trial judge reduced the judgment to about $213 million under the Texas punitive damages cap, a divided Dallas appeals court affirmed in 2021, and the case then settled in December 2021 on confidential terms while Toyota's appeal was pending before the Texas Supreme Court.

After trial: Judgment reduced to about $213 million under the Texas punitive damages cap; affirmed on appeal in 2021, then settled confidentially in December 2021 while pending before the Texas Supreme Court.

U-Haul Pays $160 Million After Overfilled Propane Tank Kills Food Truck Owner and Her Daughter

A $160 million settlement, the largest pre-verdict settlement in Pennsylvania court history, resolved claims against U-Haul after an overfilled propane tank exploded at a North Philadelphia food truck, killing a mother and her teenage daughter and severely burning three others.

After trial: The $160 million figure is a pre-trial settlement, not a jury verdict; U-Haul and the victims' families settled less than a week before trial was set to begin. The settlement was not confidential, and broke down as $69.17 million, $54.3 million, and $36.47 million to the estates involved.

A Botched Scoliosis Surgery, 10 Days of Delay, and a $135 Million Verdict

After spinal surgery at the Detroit Medical Center's Children's Hospital of Michigan left a 10-year-old girl partially paralyzed and permanently incontinent, and her surgeon took two vacations before the hardware came out, a Wayne County jury awarded $135 million.

$130.5 Million Verdict for Infant Brain Damage After Beaumont Hospital Delayed Code Blue

An Oakland County jury awarded the Tran family $130,571,897 in 2018 after finding that Beaumont Hospital technicians failed to call a code blue or provide chest compressions when a two-month-old infant suffered a breath-hold spell during a renal scan, leaving him with permanent brain damage and cerebral palsy.

After trial: Subject to Michigan's cap: the jury returned $130.57 million in September 2018, and the award was expected to fall to about $49 million under the state's noneconomic damages cap. Beaumont said it would appeal; no entered judgment, appellate ruling or settlement has been reported.

$85 Million Verdict for a Pedestrian Run Over by a Manhattan Tour Bus

A Manhattan jury awarded $85 million to a writer and former New York Times columnist who was severely injured by a double-decker sightseeing bus while lawfully crossing the street.

$74.1 Million Verdict for Family of Delivery Driver Crushed by Machinery at Ford Assembly Plant

A Clay County, Missouri jury awarded $76 million to the family of David Ford, a 48-year-old delivery driver crushed by moving machinery while dropping off vehicle seats at Ford Motor Company's Kansas City Assembly Plant. The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict in full in 2019.

After trial: The jury awarded $38 million in compensatory damages and $38 million for aggravating circumstances and put 5 percent of the fault on David Ford, so the court cut the compensatory part to $36.1 million and entered judgment for $74.1 million, which the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, affirmed in full on June 25, 2019.

Santa Fe Jury Awards $73.2 Million After OB/GYN Negligence Left Newborn Brain-Damaged at Birth

A Santa Fe jury returned a $73.2 million verdict, the largest medical malpractice award in New Mexico history at the time, after finding that an OB/GYN and his clinic failed to recognize a high-risk pregnancy, leading to a prolonged birth that left an infant with permanent brain damage and a non-functional right arm.

$65.75 Million Record Settlement for Attorney Brain-Injured When Seattle Ambulance Ran a Red Light

The City of Seattle and its five insurers paid $65.75 million to Brooke Taylor, a 38-year-old Susman Godfrey partner who suffered a catastrophic traumatic brain injury when a Seattle Fire Department aid unit went through a red light at Fourth Avenue and Seneca Street in April 2016 and struck her Porsche, spinning it into a signal box and a tree. Todd Gardner of Swanson Gardner Meyers negotiated the settlement, approved in King County Superior Court in late December 2018 and reported as the largest personal injury settlement in city history and likely the largest in Washington state.

Teenager Burned in Philadelphia Food Truck Explosion Settles With U-Haul for $54.35 Million

A propane tank ruptured aboard a Philadelphia food truck on July 1, 2014, killing the truck's owner and her 17-year-old daughter and burning a teenage girl who was helping in the business. Less than a week before the case was set for trial, U-Haul agreed in June 2018 to pay $160 million, plus an additional confidential amount, to resolve the claims of all four victims, with $54.35 million allocated to the girl, identified in press accounts only as Jane Doe because she was still a minor. Plaintiffs' lawyers said her share was the largest settlement ever paid to a minor in Pennsylvania state court history. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that she was represented by lawyers including Thomas J. Duffy. Because she was a minor, the agreement had to be approved by a judge in the Orphans' Court division of the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas.

After trial: Settlement reached before trial and not appealed: As Jane Doe was a minor, it required approval from a Philadelphia Orphans' Court judge. U-Haul said it worked with its insurance carriers to fund the settlement and that all injured parties had been compensated. See more

A CRST Big Rig Drifted Across Route 14, and Two Brothers Won $53.7 Million

A Los Angeles County jury awarded $53.7 million to two brothers left with traumatic brain injuries after a CRST big rig crossed the center line on State Route 14 and hit their car head-on.

$47.5 Million Settlement for Boy Crushed by Rotten Tanoak at San Mateo County Campground

A 12-year-old's catastrophic injuries from a rotten campground tree produced a $47.5 million pretrial settlement against San Mateo County, PG&E, and their contractors, reportedly the largest single-plaintiff personal injury settlement in California history.

$44.5 Million for a Boy Left Locked In After a Lab Sat on Urgent Test Results for Six Days

A Franklin County jury awarded $44.5 million to a southeastern Ohio boy left with locked-in syndrome after Athens Medical Laboratory took six days to report markedly abnormal STAT blood tests, and the trial court then refused to apply Ohio's noneconomic damages cap, holding it unconstitutional as applied.

After trial: The trial court struck Ohio's noneconomic damages cap as unconstitutional as applied in December 2018. The verdict was never reversed and remains the operative trial judgment, subject to settlement credits.

$43.1 Million Verdict Against R.J. Reynolds for Brake Mechanic's Lung Cancer From Menthol and Asbestos

A Boston jury awarded $43.1 million on October 12, 2018 to the widow and son of Louis Summerlin, a former brake mechanic and lifelong menthol smoker who died of lung cancer in 2015 at 73, finding R.J. Reynolds' Salem and Kool cigarettes defectively designed and the company guilty of fraud, while clearing Philip Morris and an auto parts distributor. Jerome Block of Levy Konigsberg tried the case with Michael Shepard of Shepard Law. It was the first trial in the country to take a lung cancer claim to verdict against both tobacco and asbestos defendants, and the largest verdict in New England that year.

After trial: No appellate decision altering the verdict has been reported, and no settlement or payment has been reported. Whether R.J. See more

$40 Million Settlement for Child Brain-Injured During PICC-Line Procedure at Highland Park Hospital

A 12-year-old girl suffered permanent, catastrophic brain damage after cardiac arrest during a PICC-line procedure at Highland Park Hospital, and Power Rogers secured a $40 million settlement that the Jury Verdict Reporter identified as the largest-ever Cook County recovery for a brain-injured minor.

Iowa Jury Awards $29.5 Million Over Fatal Reaction to Contrast Dye

Carrie DeJongh, 40, of Hull, Iowa, died on June 9, 2015 after receiving iodinated contrast dye for a CT scan at Sioux Center Health, when the physician treating her gave her an antihistamine but did not immediately check her vital signs or give epinephrine. Her family sued Sioux Center Health and Dr. Roy T. Slice for negligence, and both defendants denied the allegations. A Sioux County jury in Orange City returned a $29.5 million verdict on June 13, 2018, covering DeJongh's pain and suffering before her death and loss of consortium for her husband and four children. No appeal, remittitur or reduction has turned up since.

$28 Million Settlement for Teenager Left Quadriplegic After WSDOT Failed to Install Funded Highway Barrier

Washington state paid $28 million to a young woman left quadriplegic after her car struck an unguarded overpass pillar on I-5 near DuPont, where WSDOT had funding and a plan to install a protective barrier but never completed the work.

Record $27.5 Million From the Diocese of Brooklyn for Four Boys a Church Failed to Protect

Gair Gair Conason secured a $27.5 million settlement from the Diocese of Brooklyn for four boys abused by a parish religion teacher, reported as the largest individual Catholic Church sexual-abuse payout on record at the time.

San Diego Jury Awards $105 Million Against "pH Miracle" Author Robert O. Young

A San Diego jury found Robert O. Young, author of the best-selling book "The pH Miracle," liable for $105 million after he treated Dawn Kali's breast cancer with baking soda infusions and told her to skip conventional care, an award a judge later cut to about $25.9 million.

After trial: The trial court cut the award on a conditional remittitur that Kali accepted, reducing future noneconomic and punitive damages to $10 million each and bringing the total judgment to roughly $25.9 million; the California Court of Appeal affirmed the amended judgment in a February 2021 decision. Robert O. See more