Top Individual Tennessee Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements

$55 Million Verdict for Fox Sports Broadcaster Secretly Filmed at Nashville Marriott

A Davidson County jury awarded Fox Sports reporter Erin Andrews $55 million after finding that the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt negligently disclosed her room location to a stalker who altered a peephole to film her without consent.

Memphis Jury Awards $38.8 Million in Regional One Birth Injury Case

A Shelby County jury found two Regional One obstetric physicians negligently delayed a C-section through a prolonged labor, leaving a first-time mother's newborn with a brain injury and lifelong disability, and returned a $38,816,500 verdict.

$22.2 Million Verdict for Woman Paralyzed After Spinal Hematoma at Southern Tennessee Medical Center

A federal jury in Chattanooga awarded $22.2 million to a Franklin County couple after an epidural catheter placed for post-surgical pain control triggered a spinal bleed that left 62-year-old Bette Donathan permanently paralyzed from the waist down.

$16.1 Million Verdict for Man Left With Permanent Brain Damage After Bile Leak Went Untreated

A Davidson County jury awarded $16,111,643 to Justin Bing, a 26-year-old Nashville marketing manager who suffered cardiac arrest, strokes, and permanent hypoxic brain damage after two physicians failed to recognize and treat a bile leak that developed following routine gallbladder surgery.

Cracker Barrel Diner Served Commercial Bleach Wins $9.4 Million Verdict

A Marion County jury awarded $9.4 million after a Cracker Barrel waitress refilled a customer's glass with a mix of water and commercial bleach instead of ice water.

After trial: The jury awarded $730,000 economic, $3.6 million non-economic, and $5 million punitive damages. Tennessee's statutory cap on non-economic damages cut the $3.6 million component to $750,000, so the recoverable amount is far below the $9.4 million headline. Reporting differs on the final total and no post-trial order setting it could be located.

Jailers Beat a Handcuffed Man on Camera in the Intake Room, Then Left Him on the Floor for Seven Hours. A Federal Jury Awarded $6 Million.

Nathan Ling was handcuffed in the intake room of the Campbell County jail when officers beat him, breaking bones in his face and an arm, collapsing a lung and causing permanent brain damage. He was left on a concrete floor for about seven hours without treatment. A federal jury found the county liable for failing to train its jailers to intervene.

After trial: The $6,000,000 is a federal Section 1983 verdict, so Tennessee's statutory cap on noneconomic damages does not apply to it and no reduction was available on that ground. One Sixth Circuit appeal appears on the record, No. 24-5051, but it was an interlocutory appeal noticed by Deputy Dakota Williams and docketed on January 16, 2024, before the trial verdict; it was terminated on January 22, 2024 on the parties' stipulation under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 42(b), with no mandate issuing. We found no appeal of the verdict itself and no post-trial ruling reducing it.

$5 Million FELA Jury Verdict for Norfolk Southern Conductor Struck by Passing Train in Memphis Rail Corridor

A Shelby County jury found Norfolk Southern 100 percent at fault after veteran conductor Thomas David Jordan was struck by a passing BNSF train while working between dangerously close tracks in South Memphis, awarding $5 million under the Federal Employers' Liability Act. Wettermark Keith co-founder Chris Keith was counsel of record for Jordan, and the Tennessee Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment entered on the verdict in 2009.

Jury Awards $12 Million for a Double Leg Amputation, Judgment Entered at $4.2 Million Under Tennessee's Damages Cap

A Davidson County jury awarded Charles Ray Peterson Jr. $12 million after a two-vehicle chain-reaction crash on Christmas Day 2017 cost him both legs, but the signed judgment entered against the defendants totals $4,203,547 once Tennessee's statutory damages cap was applied to the verdict.

After trial: The signed Judgment Entry on Jury Verdict, filed December 2, 2021, cut the $12 million jury verdict to $4,203,547 "pursuant to statute", then apportioned that reduced amount between the defendants by their assigned share of fault. The order does not itemize the calculation, though the size of the reduction is consistent with Tennessee's cap on noneconomic damages. No appeal has been reported.

Memphis Jury Awards Tanker Driver $3.7 Million After I-55 Rear-End Truck Crash

A Shelby County jury awarded tanker driver Donriel Borne $3,705,000 after a Celadon tractor-trailer rear-ended him in stopped construction-zone traffic on Interstate 55, and the case later set the standard Tennessee appellate courts use to review a reduced verdict.

State Farm Fought the Sadowskis' Own Uninsured-Motorist Claim. A Shelby County Jury Found the At-Fault Driver 85 Percent Responsible.

After State Farm denied uninsured-motorist coverage and defended the driver who caused the crash, a Memphis jury held him 85 percent at fault for the collision that killed Kathryn Sadowski and injured her 90-year-old husband, Emil.

Shelby County Jury Returns $2.5 Million Verdict in I-240 Semi-Truck Collision

A Shelby County jury awarded Julius Malone and his wife $2,519,772 after an ASF Intermodal semi-truck merged into his lane on I-240 in Memphis, and Tennessee's noneconomic-damages cap later reduced the judgment to $1,529,772.

A Surgeon Left a Fourteen-Centimeter Ring Inside Cynthia Yebuah for Eight Years. A $4.5 Million Verdict Became $750,000.

Part of a surgical retractor was left in Cynthia Yebuah's abdomen during a 2005 kidney removal and stayed there for eight years, looping around her small bowel. A Nashville jury awarded her family $4.5 million. Tennessee's cap on noneconomic damages cut it to $750,000, and the Supreme Court held that the cap is one limit shared by an injured patient and her spouse rather than one each.

After trial: Final. The jury returned $4,500,000 in noneconomic damages in February 2018. The Tennessee Supreme Court fixed the judgment at $750,000 on June 2, 2021, holding that Tenn. Code Ann. 29-39-102 imposes a single aggregate cap covering an injured plaintiff and a spouse's derivative loss-of-consortium claim together. The decision is now the controlling authority on that question statewide, so the reduction here is the rule rather than an outlier.

$703,105 Jury Verdict for Handyman Whose Neck Injury Curtailed His Career

A Davidson County jury awarded $703,105 to a Nashville handyman who sustained a cervical injury when a vehicle operated by Acer Landscape Services collided with his, leaving him unable to perform basic tasks at the pace and volume his livelihood required.

A Ceiling Tile Fell on a Guest in the Crowne Plaza's Grand Ballroom. A Knox County Jury Awarded $600,000.

A woman attending an event in the grand ballroom of the Crowne Plaza hotel in Knoxville was struck on the head by a falling ceiling tile and suffered a mild traumatic brain injury. A Knox County jury returned $600,000, of which $500,000 was economic loss.

After trial: The jury returned $600,000 in October 2022, made up of $500,000 economic and $100,000 noneconomic damages. Plaintiff's counsel then moved for a new trial arguing the award was inadequate. We could not determine from any public source how that motion was resolved, so $600,000 is the figure the jury returned and not confirmed as the final judgment. The verdict amount and the damages breakdown come from the Tennessee Jury Verdict Reporter, which is published independently of the firms involved.

Davidson County Jury Awards $347,134 After Nursing Home Fails to Give Diabetic Resident Her Insulin

A Nashville jury awarded $347,134 after a nursing home admitted it never administered insulin to an elderly diabetic woman during her five-day respite stay, leaving her in a hypoglycemic crisis when her family came to pick her up.

$320,000 Verdict for 73-Year-Old Woman After Knee Replacement Caused by Uninsured Driver

A Davidson County jury awarded Cinda Haddon $320,000 after an uninsured driver ran her right-of-way and left her with a patellar fracture that progressed to a full knee replacement.

Reyadh v. Trulite Glass: $277,966 for a Torn Rotator Cuff After a Low-Damage Truck Crash

A commercial truck rolled into a driver stopped at a Nashville red light, and a Davidson County jury awarded $277,966, including $165,000 in non-economic damages, for the rotator cuff tear that followed.

Davidson County Jury Awards $125,143 After a Runaway Hot Tub Trailer Causes a Head-On Crash

A trailer hauling a hot tub broke loose on U.S. 31W and struck an oncoming Nashville driver head-on, and a Davidson County jury awarded $125,143 for soft-tissue injuries and the aggravation of pre-existing conditions.

Franklin Jury Awards $111,502 After Rear-End Crash Leads to Herniated Disc Surgery

A Williamson County jury awarded a crash victim $111,502 after a rear-end collision caused a herniated disc requiring surgery, rejecting the defense argument that the injury was pre-existing degeneration.

Tennessee Court of Appeals Affirms $50,000 Crash and Loss-of-Consortium Verdict for Shelby County Couple

The Tennessee Court of Appeals upheld a Shelby County jury's $50,000 award to rear-end-collision victim Ivy Joe Clark and his wife, holding their own auto carrier responsible after the at-fault driver's insurer went insolvent.