Top Individual Montana Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements

Libby Asbestos Worker Wins $36.5 Million Verdict Against Mill's Insurer

Ralph Hutt worked 18 months at W.R. Grace's asbestos-contaminated vermiculite mill in Libby, Montana in the late 1960s and developed asbestosis decades later. A Cascade County jury found the mill's workers' compensation insurer, Maryland Casualty Company, breached an independent duty to warn him about hazards it tracked through undisclosed chest X-rays, and awarded $36.5 million in February 2022. The trial judge completed Montana's mandatory review of the punitive portion in January 2023 and declined to reduce it, calling the insurer's conduct reprehensible. Maryland Casualty appealed, but the appeal ended in a confidential settlement in 2024, so the verdict itself, not any later court reduction, is what stood.

After trial: Maryland Casualty appealed the judgment to the Montana Supreme Court (DA 23-0151). The parties reached a confidential settlement in mediation, and the appeal was dismissed with prejudice by stipulation on July 17, 2024, so no appellate court ever ruled on the verdict or the punitive award. See more

$27.75 Million Verdict for Prisoner Beaten Into a 33-Day Coma While No Staff Came, Now on Appeal

At CoreCivic's Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby, Montana, an inmate serving a double life sentence let himself out of his own locked pod and into Nathaniel Lake's, then beat and choked him for more than three and a half minutes with no staff intervention. Lake was in a coma for 33 days and has a permanent brain injury.

After trial: On appeal. The jury returned $27,750,000 on April 24, 2025, and CoreCivic said it would appeal. See more

$26 Million Settlement for Montana Missionary Left Quadriplegic and Brain-Injured in 2009 Rollover

Jeremy Vangsnes, a 21-year-old cross-country athlete who was left quadriplegic and brain-injured after a 2009 rollover on Interstate 90 near Belgrade, Montana, settled for $26 million against the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention after a judge ruled the driver was acting within the scope of his agency with the organization.

$15 Million Verdict After Newlywed Dies of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning at Big Sky Lodge

A Gallatin County jury awarded $15 million to Catharine Hudgens after her husband Lew died from carbon monoxide poisoning in their honeymoon cabin at Rainbow Ranch Lodge in Big Sky, Montana, returning what the plaintiff's firm described as more than double the county's previous largest verdict.

$15 Million Verdict for Poisoned Honeymoon Couple in Montana, $9.75 Million Share Against Lodge

Lew and Catharine Hudgens of Alabama were poisoned by carbon monoxide that seeped into their room from an adjacent boiler room during their honeymoon at Rainbow Ranch Lodge in Big Sky, Montana, and were not found for four days, after Catharine's sister twice asked lodge staff to check on them. Lew died and Catharine was left with permanent brain damage. A Gallatin County jury heard the case against Rainbow Ranch Holdings and related defendants over close to two weeks and returned a combined $15 million verdict on April 10, 2024, assigning 65 percent of the fault to the lodge and the rest to parties that had already settled confidentially, which leaves the lodge answerable for $9.75 million of it under Montana's apportionment statute. Local reporters described it as more than double the largest jury award previously recorded in the county. No appeal has been located.

After trial: Reduced by law. The $9.75 million is the lodge's 65 percent share of the $15 million verdict, after Montana law removed the 35 percent assigned to settled defendants. See more

$8.2 Million Verdict After Retread Tire Blowout Kills Two Women on US-93

A Missoula County jury awarded $8.2 million, including $5.2 million in punitive damages, after Les Schwab sold a retread tire installed on the front steer axle of a cement truck that blew out on US-93 near Ronan, killing two women.

Log Truck Driver Hurt by Falling Logs at Smurfit-Stone Mill Wins $3.97 Million, Capped at $2.5 Million

Allen Ginn, a log truck driver, was injured in July 2008 when logs fell on him at a Smurfit-Stone mill near Missoula. Smurfit-Stone defaulted on liability, and a Missoula County jury set damages at $3,470,899.56 for Ginn and $500,000 for his wife Laurie. The Montana Supreme Court affirmed in 2015, but a bankruptcy stipulation the Ginns had to accept to bring the suit capped their recovery at $2.5 million.

After trial: Affirmed by the Montana Supreme Court in 2015 MT 81, but a 2012 bankruptcy stipulation capped the Ginns' recovery at $2.5 million, so the $3.97 million judgment could not be collected in full. Smurfit set aside cash and stock toward any judgment, but no source we found says what was paid.

Great Falls Jury Awards Injured BNSF Trackman $1.7 Million Under FELA, Finding Railroad 100% at Fault

Robert Dannels, a BNSF railroad trackman, suffered a permanently disabling back and spine injury in 2010 when a skid-steer loader he was operating struck a buried steel wellhead. A Cascade County jury in 2013 found BNSF 100 percent at fault and awarded $1.7 million under the Federal Employers' Liability Act. The court denied BNSF's motion for a new trial, and BNSF paid the full verdict amount.

After trial: BNSF's motion for a new trial was denied and the FELA verdict was paid in full. A separate bad-faith claim by Dannels ended in a stipulated judgment that the Montana Supreme Court affirmed in 2021 MT 71; it is not part of the amount shown here.

$1.6 Million Judgment for Woman Assaulted by a BIA Officer Who Answered Her Call, Won After Ten Years

In 2015 a woman on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation called authorities because she was worried someone might be drinking and driving. The Bureau of Indian Affairs officer who responded assaulted her. A federal judge fixed damages at $1.6 million in 2020, and after nearly a decade of litigation over whether the United States was responsible, ordered it to pay in 2025.

After trial: Final. A federal judge set damages at $1,600,000 in 2020 but declined to order the United States to pay; after the Montana Supreme Court held in August 2022 that the federal government could be responsible, Judge Molloy ordered the United States to pay after a February 4, 2025 bench trial. See more

$969,797 FELA Verdict Reinstated for Widow of Railroad Welder Killed in Track-Warrant Violation

The Montana Supreme Court reversed a 50% contributory-negligence deduction and restored the full $969,797 jury verdict for the widow of welding supervisor Andre Woods, who was killed when a hy-rail vehicle traveled more than four miles past its authorized track warrant limits and collided with an oncoming train.