Top Individual Oklahoma Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements

She Was 18 and Driving to Take the ACT. An Off-Duty Moore Police Sergeant Doing Nearly 100 in a 50 Hit Her Broadside. A Federal Jury Returned $126 Million, and Oklahoma Law Let $90,125,000 of It Stand.

On December 14, 2019 Emily Gaines, an 18-year-old Moore High School senior, was driving to take the ACT when Sgt. Kyle Lloyd of the Moore Police Department, off duty and rushing a key to another officer's patrol car for a department event, hit her broadside at 95 to 100 mph in a 50 zone. She died at the scene. On April 1, 2026 a federal jury returned $126,000,000. The court entered $90,000,000 against Lloyd, who is in prison, and cut the $36,000,000 against the City to $125,000 under Oklahoma's Governmental Tort Claims Act.

After trial: Reduced by statute, not by a court's view of the evidence. The jury's $126,000,000 verdict of April 1, 2026 was entered on April 6, 2026 as $90,000,000 against Kyle Lloyd on the Section 1983 claim and $125,000 against the City of Moore, because the Oklahoma Governmental Tort Claims Act (51 O.S. 154, in the version governing a 2019 incident) caps a city's liability at $125,000 per claimant for a non-property claim. The Act does not reach the federal claim against the officer individually, and Oklahoma's general noneconomic cap was struck down in Beason v. I.E. Miller Services in 2019 and would not have applied to a federal claim anyway. The City said it disagrees with the scope-of-employment finding and would consider appealing; as of September 2026 we have found no notice of appeal by either defendant, and if one is filed this entry will be re-tagged. Collectability: Lloyd is serving a prison sentence and no insurer is identified for the $90,000,000, so the amount ranked here is what the court ordered against him, not what the family has received. The $125,000 against the City is the only portion with an identified payer.

He Turned Himself In on a Warrant and Begged for a Doctor for Twelve Days. Jail Video Caught the Nurse Mocking Him. He Died of Septic Shock.

Terral Ellis II, 26, walked into the Ottawa County Jail voluntarily on an outstanding warrant. He developed bronchopneumonia and spent twelve days asking for medical care for seizures, sweating and pain. Jail video captured staff and the jail nurse mocking him. He died of septic shock on October 22, 2015.

After trial: Affirmed in full. The jury returned $33,000,000 in compensatory damages on September 8, 2023 after an eight-day trial in the Northern District of Oklahoma, No. 4:17-cv-00325. Ottawa County filed several post-judgment motions, all denied, and the Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court in full on April 21, 2026 in Nos. 24-5035 and 24-5080, in a published opinion by Judge Rossman joined by Chief Judge Holmes and Judge McHugh. We publish the $33,000,000 compensatory award. Local reporting puts the amount owed at roughly $40,000,000 once post-judgment interest is included, and we do not publish that figure as the award. Collection is a live question rather than a doubt about liability: the judgment is against a county, and in August 2026 Ottawa County put a sales-tax increase to its voters to fund it. On caps: the Oklahoma Governmental Tort Claims Act limits recovery against a county on state-law claims, but this was a Fourteenth Amendment deliberate-indifference claim against the Sheriff in his official capacity under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which the Act does not reach.

He Went In for Hernia Mesh Removal and Woke Up With a Leg That Would Not Hold Him. The Surgeon Had Cut the Femoral Nerve and Never Noticed. The Defense Offered $200,000; an Oklahoma County Jury Returned $17.5 Million.

On July 2, 2018 Justin Fulton, 32, had surgery to remove hernia mesh. He woke with his right leg numb and fell to the floor when he tried to stand, because his right quadriceps would not work. Nerve studies showed no motor or sensory function in his right femoral nerve: the surgeon had cut into it and not recognized it. The injury is permanent. The defense offered $200,000. On April 7, 2022 an Oklahoma County jury voted 11 to 1 for the Fultons and awarded $17,500,000, entered as a judgment in May and released and satisfied in July 2022.

After trial: The $17,500,000 verdict of April 7, 2022 was entered as a judgment on May 13, 2022 and was never reduced by any court: Dr. Bender's motion for a new trial or remittitur was struck as settled after a release and satisfaction of judgment was filed on July 6, 2022. No cap applied, because OU Medicine, Inc. had been dismissed a week before trial (no Governmental Tort Claims Act exposure) and Oklahoma's noneconomic cap was struck down in Beason v. I.E. Miller Services (2019). The dollar split between the Fultons is not on the OSCN docket, where the verdict forms are sealed; it comes from an independent legal-industry report. Collectability: the judgment was satisfied on terms that are not public, so this is a $17,500,000 judgment satisfied on confidential terms, not $17,500,000 paid.

Oklahoma Supreme Court Restores Abel Law Firm's $15 Million Crane Verdict and Strikes the State's Damages Cap

The Oklahoma Supreme Court restored the full $15 million jury award for oilfield worker Todd Beason, who lost part of an arm when a crane boom fell on him, and held the state's $350,000 cap on noneconomic damages unconstitutional.

He Broke His Neck Shortly After Booking and Was Paralysed From the Chest Down. He Was Left Naked on a Cell Floor for Days. A Federal Judge Called the Cell His Burial Crypt.

Elliott Earl Williams, 37, was arrested in Owasso on an obstruction complaint in October 2011. Shortly after booking at the Tulsa County Jail he suffered a severe neck injury that paralysed him from the chest down. He was left on the floor of a medical-unit cell, unable to move, for days, and died of complications of the untreated injury and dehydration.

After trial: Paid, and the figure published is the money received rather than the verdict. The jury returned $10,250,000, being $10,000,000 in compensatory damages against Sheriffs Glanz and Regalado and $250,000 in punitive damages against Glanz individually. The Tenth Circuit affirmed liability and the awards on August 20, 2019 in Burke v. Regalado, 935 F.3d 960, Nos. 18-5042 and 18-5043, remanding only on whether the defendants could set off the estate's earlier settlement with the jail's medical provider. Instead of litigating the setoff the parties settled, and Tulsa County paid the estate $10,000,000 in 2019. We publish $10,000,000 as the recovery and the $10,250,000 verdict as the gross. On caps: this was a federal claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, so the Oklahoma Governmental Tort Claims Act limits on county liability did not apply.

The Asbestos Came Home on His Stepfather's Work Clothes. He Was a Child at the Time, and He Died of Mesothelioma at 38.

Brennen Atkeson was exposed to asbestos as a child, second-hand, from dust carried into the family home on the work clothes of his stepfather, an oilfield worker. The fibers came from raw asbestos put into drilling-mud products and from drilling-rig products. He developed mesothelioma and died at 38.

After trial: Final and affirmed. The jury returned $8,000,000 in compensatory damages on May 22, 2019 after a thirteen-day trial in the District Court of Pontotoc County, No. CJ-2016-00057, Judge Steven Kessinger. National Oilwell Varco and Montello moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict; the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals affirmed on May 14, 2021 in No. DF-118290, certiorari was denied, and the mandate issued February 9, 2022. We publish the compensatory award only. The docket records a second-stage verdict form, which in Oklahoma practice means punitive damages went to the jury, but it does not state what if anything was awarded, so we say nothing about punitive damages here. On caps: Oklahoma's $350,000 non-economic cap in 23 O.S. § 61.2 never reached wrongful death, and by the date of this verdict it was void in any event, struck down as a special law a month earlier in Beason v. I. E. Miller Services, Inc., 2019 OK 28. All defendants were private corporations, so the Governmental Tort Claims Act limits that cut so many Oklahoma recoveries do not apply. The appellate decision issued as an unpublished summary opinion, so the OSCN docket rather than a reported opinion is the citable record.

Federal Jury Awards $7.8 Million After Semi Blocks Oklahoma City Road, Causes High-Speed Crash

A federal jury awarded Aldin Lewis $7.8 million after a Chandi 209 Trucking semi pulled onto W. Reno Avenue without stopping at a stop sign, blocking both eastbound lanes and leaving Lewis no room to brake.

For 40 Years the State Cared for Him. When Oklahoma Closed Its Institutions He Was Moved to a Private Group Home, and He Died There. The Jury Returned $8 Million; $7.2 Million Stood.

Mitchell Boles was 51, profoundly disabled and dependent on constant supervision. He had lived about 40 years at the state's Southern Oklahoma Resource Center in Pauls Valley. When Oklahoma closed its institutions he was moved in January 2014 to a group home in northwest Oklahoma City run by Renaissance Management Group, and he died there. In October 2016 an Oklahoma County jury found the operator negligent, put 80 percent of the fault on it, awarded $4,000,000 in actual damages and then $4,000,000 in punitive damages. The judgment was $7,200,000.

After trial: Reduced by apportionment, not by a cap. The jury's $4,000,000 actual-damages verdict was entered at $3,200,000 to reflect Renaissance Management Group's 80 percent share of fault, and the second-stage punitive award of $4,000,000 was entered in full, for a $7,200,000 judgment against an $8,000,000 verdict. The OSCN docket shows the case closed on October 10, 2016 with no appeal entry. No cap applied: the case predates Beason (2019) but a wrongful-death claim with a punitive award fell outside the noneconomic cap on two grounds, and the Department of Human Services was a third-party defendant brought in by Renaissance rather than a party the plaintiff recovered from, so the Governmental Tort Claims Act does not reach the judgment. Collectability: Renaissance is a private operator that said it intended to resolve the matter with the family's lawyers; no source reports the payment, so the disclosure stays at not public.

Jailed on a Misdemeanor, He Screamed and Begged for a Nurse for Days While an Ulcer Perforated. Nobody Wrote It Down. A Federal Jury Found the Oklahoma County Jail Trust Deliberately Indifferent and Returned $2 Million.

Gregory N. Davis, 53, was booked into the Oklahoma County Detention Center in August 2021 on a misdemeanor outraging-public-decency complaint. Over nine days a peptic ulcer perforated. Another inmate testified that he screamed in pain, cried and begged for a nurse for days; detention officers reported none of it and missed mandatory cell checks. He was found unresponsive during a mental-health check and died at a hospital on August 12, 2021. On April 17, 2026 a federal jury unanimously found the jail trust deliberately indifferent to his medical need and awarded his estate $2,000,000.

After trial: A federal jury verdict returned April 17, 2026 against the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority on a Section 1983 claim, which Oklahoma's Governmental Tort Claims Act does not cap, so the full $2,000,000 is the figure that stands. The verdict is recent: as of September 2026 no post-trial ruling or appeal has been reported, and if one is filed this entry will be re-tagged. The jury found for the two individual defendants, former administrator Greg Williams and counselor Sanaria Okongor, so the award runs against the trust alone. Collectability: the payer is a public trust; no source reports the payment, so the disclosure stays at not public.

$2 Million Verdict Against Church That Hid Daycare Worker's Abuse History

A Tulsa County jury awarded $2 million to the family of a toddler injured at a church daycare after a second church hired the same worker without disclosing she was under investigation for abusing another child.