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: The jury's $260 million damages finding was cut by 5 percent under Texas's proportionate-responsibility statute for Riley McPherson's own comparative fault. The $247 million net figure comes from contemporaneous reporting of the family's counsel; we have not seen the signed judgment itself, though the arithmetic matches the jury's apportionment. See more

The $242.1 Million Toyota Seatback Verdict for Two Young Children Brain-Injured in the Back Seat of a Lexus, Reduced to $213 Million by Texas Damage Caps and Settled Confidentially While Before the Texas Supreme Court

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 honest frame: 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.

Clay County Jury Awards $76 Million to Family of Delivery Driver Crushed by Machinery at Ford's Kansas City 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: Affirmed in full by the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, 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.

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: The settlement was reached before trial and was not appealed. Because Jane Doe was a minor, it required approval from a Philadelphia Orphans' Court judge. 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.

Manhattan Jury Awards $45.2 Million to Philanthropist Left Brain-Damaged When Boys Hurled Shopping Cart Off Fourth-Floor Mall Walkway

A Manhattan jury awarded $45.2 million to Marion Hedges, who suffered permanent brain damage after two boys threw a shopping cart from a fourth-floor walkway onto her head at East River Plaza mall in East Harlem on October 30, 2011.

$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.

$40 Million Settlement for Child Left with Catastrophic Brain Injury After 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.

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

Dallas Jury Awards $25 Million After NFL Player Is Killed in Teammate's DUI Crash

A Dallas County jury awarded $25 million to the mother of Jerry Brown Jr., a Dallas Cowboys practice-squad player killed when his teammate Josh Brent drove drunk at more than twice the legal limit, after finding that Beamers nightclub had over-served Brent alcohol before the fatal crash.

$25 Million Verdict Against MARTA After Paratransit Passenger Falls Into Vegetative State

A Fulton County jury awarded $25 million against MARTA after a 66-year-old paratransit rider fell descending an awkwardly angled bus step and suffered catastrophic brain damage that left her in a vegetative state.

$24.7 Million Federal Verdict After Tripler Failed to Treat Post-Delivery Sepsis

A federal bench trial awarded $24.7 million to a Navy family after Tripler Army Medical Center physicians failed to administer IV antibiotics for roughly 48 hours following a post-delivery infection, leaving the patient with permanent kidney failure.

A Bridgeview Summer Camp Drowning and a Record $21.5 Million Verdict

A Cook County jury awarded $21.5 million, a state record for a drowning, after a six-year-old boy who could not swim was left unsupervised in a Bridgeview Park District camp pool, and an appellate court later affirmed the full award.

Kansas Teen Paralyzed in Rear-End Crash Wins $38.5 Million Jury Verdict

Kara Hansen was a 16-year-old Riverton, Kansas high school student when Corbin Hamilton rear-ended her 1966 Ford Mustang in Cherokee County on April 9, 2014, breaking her neck and leaving her paralyzed from the chest down. After a five-day trial in Cherokee County District Court, a jury found Hamilton fully at fault and awarded Hansen $38.5 million, including $18 million for future medical and life-care costs and $18 million in noneconomic damages. Kansas's statutory cap on noneconomic damages, which applied to claims arising before July 1, 2014 and was not struck down until more than a year after this trial, held that portion of the award to $250,000, putting the judgment that could be entered at roughly $20.75 million. Hamilton carried only a small liability insurance policy, leaving full recovery in doubt.

After trial: Kansas law (K.S.A. 60-19a02) capped noneconomic damages in personal injury cases arising before July 1, 2014 at $250,000 and directed that judgment be entered at that figure for all noneconomic loss. See more