Top Premises Liability Personal Injury Settlements
The largest personal injury settlements for premises liability cases for one client or family, ranked by amount. Each links to the full story, the firm, and the record behind the number.
- $125 millionSettlementReduced after trialPaidNJ
Verizon Pays $125 Million to Lawyer Paralyzed by a Rotted Utility Pole That Fell on Her at a Union City Bus Stop
A 43-year-old utility pole that Verizon had been told to remove in 1999 snapped and fell on attorney Maria Moser Meister at a Union City bus stop in 2017, leaving her with a severe brain injury and paralysis. In May 2020 a New Jersey judge approved a $125 million settlement, reported as the largest personal injury settlement in state history.
After trial: This was a pre-trial settlement, not a jury verdict. Verizon agreed to pay $125 million total, $118,275,000 to Maria Meister and $7 million to her husband, before the case went to trial, and an Essex County Superior Court judge approved it at a friendly hearing in May 2020.
Mazie Slater Katz & Freeman, LLC2020 · Superior Court of New Jersey, Essex CountyRead the full story → - $95.6 millionSettlementPA
The $227 Million Building Collapse Settlement and Mariya Plekan's $95.6 Million Award
After an unbraced brick wall toppled during a 2013 Center City demolition and crushed a Salvation Army store, Kline & Specter's Andrew J. Stern secured a $95.6 million award for survivor Mariya Plekan, the largest individual share of a record $227 million settlement.
- $91 millionSettlementIL
7-Eleven Pays $91 Million to Bensenville Man Who Lost Both Legs Outside Its Store
A suburban Chicago man who lost both legs above the knee when a car jumped the curb and pinned him against a Bensenville 7-Eleven secured a $91 million settlement, the largest pretrial personal injury recovery in Illinois history, after Power Rogers LLP showed the company had documented thousands of similar storefront crashes and still refused to install protective bollards.
- $60.7 millionSettlementOH
$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.
- $42.44 millionSettlementNC
Fire Case Brings a $42.44 Million Settlement in North Carolina
Whitley Law Firm and co-counsel resolved negligence and nuisance claims over a fire for $42.44 million, among the larger personal-injury recoveries reported in the state that year.
Whitley Law Firm Injury Lawyers2023 · North Carolina (county withheld by confidentiality agreement)Read the full story → - $27 millionSettlementMO
Mother of Kansas City Shooting Victim Recovers $27 Million From Commercial Property Owner
A woman sued a commercial property owner for wrongful death after her child was shot and killed on the property in Kansas City, alleging the landowner had failed to provide adequate security measures and precautions. The case was handled under a confidentiality agreement that keeps the parties' identities and the property's location out of the public record. It was resolved in Jackson County Circuit Court on May 31, 2024, under the caption Confidential v. Confidential, for $27,000,000. Missouri Lawyers Media, which reported the settlement and reached plaintiff's counsel for comment, later listed it as the top settlement in its Top Verdicts and Settlements roundup for 2024.
After trial: Case name, decedent and defendant withheld under a confidentiality agreement.
Ketchmark & McCreight, P.C.2024 · Jackson County Circuit Court, Missouri (case caption confidential)Read the full story → - $26 millionSettlementSC
$26 Million Settlement for Toddler Burned in Over-Chlorinated Resort Pool
Kenneth Berger secured a $26 million settlement for the family of a three-year-old who suffered severe chemical burns at Caribbean Resort and Villas in Myrtle Beach after a pool employee falsified chlorine records for years.
Kenneth Berger2024 · U.S. District Court, District of South Carolina (Horry County)Read the full story → - $21.5 millionSettlementWA
$21.5 Million Settlement for Jogger Mauled by Dogs King County Failed to Remove
King County paid its largest personal injury settlement on record after a 38-year-old mother of two was mauled by two dogs the county had repeatedly been warned about but failed to remove.
- $21.5 millionSettlementCA
$21.5 Million Settlement After Exposed Trolley Rail Left Man Paralyzed at San Diego Transit Station
David Long tripped on two inches of exposed trolley track left by construction grinding crews at the 12th and Imperial MTS station and suffered a spinal cord injury that left him quadriplegic; the case settled for $21.5 million.
Harris Personal Injury Lawyers, Inc.2015 · San Diego County Superior Court, Central Justice CenterRead the full story → - $18.5 millionSettlementCA
$18.5 Million Settlement for Boy Who Lost Leg When City Garbage Truck Made Dangerous Turn
San Diego agreed to pay $18.5 million, the largest settlement of its kind in city history, after a nine-year-old lost his left leg when a city garbage truck executed a dangerous multi-point turn through an intersection he was crossing on a skateboard.
- $18.5 millionSettlementIL
Movie Extra Wins $18.5 Million After Stunt Cable Shatters Skull on Transformers 3 Set
A Cook County judge approved an $18.5 million settlement for Gabriela Cedillo, a 24-year-old extra who suffered catastrophic brain damage when a snapped tow cable tore through her windshield during filming of Transformers: Dark of the Moon in Hammond, Indiana.
- $16.95 millionSettlementWA
Washington State Pays $16.95 Million to Survivors of Abuse at J Bar D Boys Ranch
Washington State agreed to pay $16.95 million to 12 former residents of the J Bar D Boys Ranch who were sexually and physically abused as children while in state custody during the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the settlement reached mid-trial after four weeks of testimony.
Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala (PCVA)2023 · Thurston County Superior Court, WashingtonRead the full story → - $16 millionSettlementFL
$16 Million Settlement for Woman Sexually Assaulted at Rodeway Inn While Hotel Security Watched
Justin Shapiro of Leesfield and Partners secured a $16 million settlement for a 67-year-old woman who was beaten and sexually assaulted in the open hallway of a northwest Miami-Dade Rodeway Inn while hotel employees and the property's security guard stood by and did nothing.
- $15.4 millionSettlementHI
State Pays $15.4 Million After Trail Sign Channeled Two Visitors Off a 300-Foot Cliff
A Kauai judge found Hawaii totally at fault after a state-posted warning sign at the left trail entrance near Opaeka'a Falls left the right-hand path -- which ended at a sheer 300-foot cliff -- completely unmarked, sending two visiting women to their deaths.
- $10.75 millionSettlementFL
$10.75 Million Settlement for Massachusetts Man Left Quadriplegic After Dive from Key West Resort Dock
Stuart Grossman secured a $10.75 million settlement for Bernard Barlow, a Massachusetts vacationer who broke his neck diving from the Galleon Resort's tiki bar deck in April 2015 after the tide receded and the resort posted no warnings.
- $10 millionSettlementWA
Cyclist Left Quadriplegic by a Hidden Trail Bollard Recovers $10 Million From King County
Davis Law Group won a $10 million settlement for Carl Schwartz, a retired hospital administrator left paralyzed when his bicycle struck an unmarked metal post on King County's Green River Trail.
- $10 millionSettlementCA
Lucia Mar Unified School District Pays $10 Million After Bus Driver With Prior Conviction Molested Nine-Year-Old Special-Needs Student
Lucia Mar Unified School District agreed to pay $10 million in May 2022 to settle negligence claims brought on behalf of a nine-year-old special-needs girl who was repeatedly sexually abused by a school bus driver in 2017, a driver the district had hired despite a prior peeping conviction he concealed on his application.
- $9.5 millionSettlementIL
Chicago Pays $9.5 Million After Cyclist's Wheel Caught in Forgotten Streetcar Rails on Designated Bike Route
Chicago agreed to pay $9.5 million to Catalin Dumitrescu, who suffered catastrophic injuries in 2014 when his bicycle wheel lodged in exposed streetcar rails that had been buried in an East Hyde Park street and then re-designated as a bike route without removing the decades-old hazard.
- $8.25 millionSettlementCA
$8.25 Million Settlement for Three Girls Molested by Fifth-Grade Teacher at Paradise Valley Elementary
Morgan Hill Unified School District paid $8.25 million to three families after their daughters were molested by teacher John Loyd over two school years, with the district agreeing to mandatory predator-identification training for all staff.
- $8 millionSettlementNM
$8 Million Settlement for NMSU Basketball Players Sexually Assaulted by Teammates
Shamieh Law and co-counsel secured an $8 million settlement for two former New Mexico State University basketball players who were sexually assaulted by teammates while coaches and administrators failed to act.
All premises liability verdicts and settlements
229 results, largest first
Appointed by the court as Plaintiffs Liaison Counsel and Co-Lead Class Counsel, Stephen Herman of Herman Herman and Katz helped negotiate a $7.8 billion economic and property-damage class settlement with BP covering more than 100,000 Gulf Coast businesses and individuals harmed by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Anapol Weiss shareholder Kristen Gibbons Feden helped secure $1.6 billion in default verdicts for 104 women sexually abused as children by former Long Island pediatrician Stuart Copperman, one of the largest cumulative civil awards against a single individual in U.S. history.
Saltz Mongeluzzi and Bendesky joined the plaintiffs' leadership team that secured a $1.2 billion settlement for the families and survivors of 98 people killed when Champlain Towers South collapsed in Surfside, Florida on June 24, 2021 -- the largest construction-disaster settlement in U.S. history.
A Dallas jury awarded $1.1 billion against a trust fund heir who beat a 2-year-old into a permanent vegetative state in 2021, a verdict the firm calls the largest child-assault award in U.S. history.
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.
Hugh Lambert served on the Plaintiffs Steering Committee in MDL 2047, the sprawling federal litigation against Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin that produced a landmark settlement valued at up to $1 billion to remediate roughly 4,500 sulfur-contaminated homes across Florida, Louisiana, and dozens of other states.
A grade-school boy suffered a traumatic brain injury, a fractured skull and broken bones in July 2023 when a prototype Ford Mustang Dark Horse spun out during a demonstration at Continental Automotive Systems' Auburn Hills, Michigan test track and struck children watching from behind a guardrail. Continental conceded liability for the child's injuries but made no settlement offer, so the case was tried to an Oakland County jury on damages alone. At the end of a three-week trial in July 2026 the jury returned $896,467,970, reported by Courtroom View Network as the largest single-plaintiff personal injury verdict in Michigan history. Separate juries later heard the father's own bystander claim and the claim of the second boy hurt at the guardrail.
Joseph Bruno and Bruno & Bruno served as lead plaintiffs' counsel in a landmark class action brought by more than 8,000 Gentilly residents exposed to a butadiene tank-car fire in 1987, securing a jury verdict that included $2.5 billion in punitive damages against CSX Transportation alone, later reduced to $850 million on appeal and affirmed by Louisiana's Fourth Circuit.
Frantz Law Group secured a share of an up-to-$800 million settlement with MGM Resorts International on behalf of 199 victims of the October 2017 Route 91 Harvest festival shooting, one of the largest mass-casualty compensation funds in U.S. history.
A jury found the owners of the Park Social bar liable for a 2017 staircase fall that left a 57-year-old patron a partial quadriplegic, returning a $644,751,855 premises-liability verdict that the defendants have appealed to Florida's Sixth District Court of Appeal.
Hunter Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik served as court-appointed co-liaison counsel for individual plaintiffs in the consolidated federal Flint water litigation, which produced a $600 million settlement from the State of Michigan in 2020.
Acadia Healthcare agreed to pay $400 million to resolve three civil cases arising from its Desert Hills and Familyworks foster care program in New Mexico, where licensed foster parent Clarence Garcia sexually abused multiple children in his care.
A 26-year class action brought by thousands of property owners near Colorado's Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant resulted in a $375 million settlement against Rockwell International and Dow Chemical in 2016, with Paul DeMarco of MSD serving as co-counsel from the litigation's earliest years.
Hugh Lambert served on the court-appointed Plaintiffs Steering Committee that secured a $330 million class action settlement for roughly 6,000 St. Bernard Parish homeowners whose properties were contaminated when Hurricane Katrina dislodged a crude oil storage tank at Murphy Oil's Meraux, Louisiana refinery.
Hugh Lambert, a court-appointed member of the Plaintiffs Steering Committee in MDL 2047, helped negotiate a $248 million settlement against Taishan Gypsum and affiliated manufacturers, resolving the second major tranche of a decade-long federal litigation over sulfur-contaminated Chinese drywall installed in thousands of American homes.
A Richmond Circuit Court jury awarded $360 million to three former adolescent patients who were sexually abused by Dr. Daniel Davidow, the medical director of Cumberland Hospital for Children, during what he called routine femoral pulse exams.
Representing more clergy abuse survivors in the Archdiocese of New Orleans bankruptcy than any other firm, Herman, Katz, Gisleson and Cain helped push a five-year Chapter 11 proceeding to a $230 million settlement confirmed in December 2025, with additional recovery against Travelers Insurance still pending.
A Rio Arriba County jury awarded $485 million to a child known as G.S. who was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a foster parent licensed through Acadia Healthcare's New Mexico subsidiaries, despite documented abuse allegations against that foster parent dating to 2000.
A San Patricio County jury awarded $198.2 million to Kristene Chapa, who was kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and shot in the head at a public park in 2012, with the verdict holding her convicted attacker, his father, and their family pharmacy jointly liable.
A Champaign County jury returned a $535 million verdict -- the largest known single-plaintiff verdict in Illinois history -- against a psychiatric facility that failed to prevent the rape of a 13-year-old female patient by another adolescent resident.
Joseph Bruno served on the eight-member Plaintiffs' Legal Committee in a federal class action covering more than 17,000 people harmed when a corrosion failure triggered a catastrophic pre-dawn explosion at Shell's Norco, Louisiana refinery in May 1988, ultimately settling for nearly $172 million.
A Las Vegas jury awarded hedge fund manager David Moradi $160.5 million after Cosmopolitan security personnel beat him at the Marquee nightclub and left him with a traumatic brain injury, and a confidential settlement followed during deliberations on punitive damages.
A DeKalb County jury awarded $160 million to the families of Ewell Ynoa and Giovan Diaz, two young men shot and killed at a 2017 rap concert at the Masquerade venue in Underground Atlanta, finding Sony Music Holdings failed to protect patrons at the show.
A DeKalb County State Court jury awarded $140 million on December 20, 2023 to the estate of George Hughes, a 63-year-old tenant who burned to death in a March 2017 fire at the Venetian Hills Apartments in southwest Atlanta, finding the landlord's fire safety failures caused his death, but the judgment did not stand: on October 31, 2025 the Georgia Court of Appeals vacated it, holding that the jury was wrongly instructed under general premises liability law in addition to Georgia's narrower landlord-tenant statute, and the case was remanded for a full retrial that remains pending.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.