Top Washington Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements

Jury's $857 Million PCB Verdict for Sky Valley School Students and Parents

A King County jury awarded $857 million in December 2023 to seven people, five former students and two parent volunteers, who said they were sickened by PCBs leaking from light fixtures at the Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington. The verdict included $73 million in compensatory damages and $784 million in punitive damages against Monsanto and its successor Pharmacia. In April 2024 a King County judge cut the punitive award to $365 million under Missouri's statutory cap on punitive damages, reducing the total to $438 million. Monsanto appealed, and Bayer said in February 2026 that Monsanto had settled the remaining Sky Valley jury verdicts on confidential terms, so what was ultimately paid is not public.

After trial: On appeal. King County Superior Court Judge Jim Rogers cut the punitive award from $784 million to $365 million on April 23, 2024, bringing the total to $438 million. See more

$275 Million Verdict for Students Poisoned by PCBs at Washington State School

A King County jury awarded $275 million to thirteen Sky Valley Education Center students and families who suffered neurological injuries from PCB-contaminated light fixtures manufactured by Monsanto.

$185 Million Verdict for Three Teachers Poisoned by Monsanto PCBs in School Lighting

A King County jury awarded three Monroe, Washington teachers $185 million after finding that PCBs manufactured by Monsanto leached from fluorescent light ballasts at their school and caused permanent neurological injuries.

After trial: The Washington Court of Appeals reversed the verdict in 2024, and the Washington Supreme Court reinstated it in October 2025.

King County Jury Awards $165 Million to Eight Former Sky Valley School Employees Over PCB Exposure

A King County jury awarded $165 million to eight former Sky Valley Education Center employees, including the estate of one deceased plaintiff, after finding Pharmacia LLC liable for selling PCB-containing fluorescent light ballasts without adequate warning.

After trial: The award covers eight former Sky Valley employees. Pharmacia announced it would appeal, and the appeal was pending as of the last public reporting.

Pierce County Jury Awards $130 Million Over Death of 2-Year-Old the State and Her Daycare Failed to Protect

A Pierce County jury awarded $130 million against the State of Washington and a South Hill daycare over the death of a 2-year-old girl who died of blunt force trauma in March 2022 after the state's child welfare agency returned her to a home where her abuser remained present and daycare staff failed to report visible injuries they had seen. After a five-week trial the jury found the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families 90% at fault and Love and Laughter Learning Centers, Inc. 10% at fault. Of that total, $52 million was awarded individually to the girl's estate, with the remainder split among four other family beneficiaries, and the jury returned a further $10 million against the mother and her boyfriend. News accounts described it as the largest verdict of its kind in Washington state history. Ray Dearie of Dearie Law Group represented the family.

After trial: As of publication, no independent source reports that DCYF or Love and Laughter Learning Centers has appealed. DCYF said after the verdict only that it was evaluating its legal options. See more

$123 Million Verdict for Aurora Bridge Duck Boat Crash, Largest Non-Punitive PI Verdict in Washington

A King County jury awarded $123 million to 40 plaintiffs after five international students were killed and dozens injured when a Ride the Ducks amphibious vehicle suffered a catastrophic axle fracture on Seattle's Aurora Bridge in 2015.

After trial: The award covered roughly 40 plaintiffs, with individual shares ranging from about $40,000 to $25 million.

King County Verdict Holds Two Crane Companies to $111 Million for the South Lake Union Collapse

A King County jury returned a $150 million verdict against two crane subcontractors whose safety failures caused the April 2019 South Lake Union crane collapse, which killed four people and injured three others.

After trial: The jury found $150 million in damages and put 25 percent of the fault on the crane owner, Morrow Equipment, which was not at trial, so the two companies at trial owe the other 75 percent: $54 million to the Wong family, $39 million to the Justad family and $9 million each to two injured survivors, $111 million in all. The Washington Court of Appeals affirmed in August 2023.

$100 Million Verdict Against Pharmacia for PCB Exposure at Sky Valley Education Center

A King County jury awarded $100 million to four plaintiffs who suffered neurological, hormonal, and cancer-related illnesses after years of exposure to PCBs from defective fluorescent light fixtures at a Monroe, Washington school.

After trial: The award covers four plaintiffs. Pharmacia has appealed the Sky Valley verdicts as a group, and Bayer's August 2025 settlement of more than 200 Sky Valley claims expressly excluded the verdicts already on appeal.

$82 Million Verdict Against Monsanto for PCB Exposure at the Sky Valley Education Center

A King County jury returned an $82 million verdict against Monsanto in December 2022 for a family exposed to PCBs at the Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington, awarding $20.5 million in compensatory damages and $61.5 million in punitive damages to one member of the family. The firm described it as the largest verdict against Monsanto for an individual plaintiff in any PCB case.

After trial: Monsanto's appeal was pending at the Washington Court of Appeals; Bayer's August 2025 Sky Valley settlement excluded cases already on appeal, and no final appellate decision in this case has been reported.

$72 Million Verdict for Two Students Harmed by PCBs at Sky Valley Education Center

A King County jury awarded $72 million to two former Sky Valley Education Center students who developed chronic neurological injuries after years of PCB exposure from aging fluorescent light fixtures manufactured by Monsanto.

$65.75 Million Record Settlement for Attorney Brain-Injured When Seattle Ambulance Ran a Red Light

The City of Seattle and its five insurers paid $65.75 million to Brooke Taylor, a 38-year-old Susman Godfrey partner who suffered a catastrophic traumatic brain injury when a Seattle Fire Department aid unit went through a red light at Fourth Avenue and Seneca Street in April 2016 and struck her Porsche, spinning it into a signal box and a tree. Todd Gardner of Swanson Gardner Meyers negotiated the settlement, approved in King County Superior Court in late December 2018 and reported as the largest personal injury settlement in city history and likely the largest in Washington state.

Family of Student Killed in Seattle Crane Collapse Recovers $54.15 Million

A tower crane being disassembled in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood collapsed onto a city street in high wind on April 27, 2019, crushing an Uber carrying 19-year-old Seattle Pacific University student Sarah Wong and killing her. A King County jury found Northwest Tower Crane Service 45 percent at fault and Omega Morgan Sarens 30 percent at fault, and set the damages for Wong's death at more than $72 million as part of a verdict topping $150 million for five victims of the collapse. Because the remaining 25 percent of the fault went to Morrow Equipment, which had settled and was not a trial defendant, the two trial defendants were jointly and severally liable only for their combined 75 percent share, which left the Wong family $54.15 million under the judgment. Todd Gardner represented the Wong family at trial. Omega Morgan appealed on four grounds, and the Washington Court of Appeals affirmed in 2023.

After trial: Reduced and affirmed. The jury set damages above $72 million, but the two trial defendants were liable only for the 75 percent of fault assigned to them, leaving a $54.15 million judgment, which the Washington Court of Appeals affirmed in 2023 in an unpublished opinion. See more

$50 Million Verdict for Parents Whose Prenatal Genetic Test Missed the One Defect It Was Ordered to Find

A King County jury awarded $50 million to Rhea and Brock Wuth after Valley Medical Center failed to send LabCorp the family genetic report needed to screen for a known chromosome translocation and LabCorp ran only a routine karyotype without asking for it, leaving the couple's son to be born with the unbalanced translocation the testing was meant to detect. The verdict was affirmed on appeal in 2015.

After trial: Valley Medical Center settled during the appeal; the Washington Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict against LabCorp in August 2015 and review was denied in 2016.

$42.5 Million Verdict for EMT and Aspiring Firefighter Critically Injured in Left-Turn Motorcycle Crash

A Pierce County jury awarded $44.7 million to an EMT and volunteer firefighter left with permanent injuries after an SUV driver turned left through an uncontrolled intersection and into his path, a verdict Washington courts later upheld in full.

After trial: The jury awarded just over $44.7 million and put 5 percent of the fault on Simon, so under Washington's comparative fault rule the judgment is about $42.5 million, and the Court of Appeals affirmed in 2025. The entered judgment figure is not public.

$40.1 Million Verdict for Man Whose Heart Was Destroyed by Defective Cardiac Monitor

A Snohomish County jury awarded Paramjit Singh and his family $40.1 million after an Edwards Lifesciences cardiac monitoring device overheated during bypass surgery and destroyed his heart, forcing a transplant, because the manufacturer had concealed a known software defect for years.

KOMO Helicopter Crash Near Seattle Space Needle Yields $40 Million Settlement

Two men who suffered severe blast, burn, and traumatic brain injuries when a KOMO news helicopter fell onto their vehicles during morning rush hour in March 2014 received a $40 million settlement five weeks into trial.

Jury Awards $38 Million to Seattle Commuter Cyclist Disabled by Valet Driver Taking Illegal Shortcut

A King County jury awarded $38 million to Thyce Colyn, a commuter cyclist who suffered permanent brain damage and a shattered pelvis after a Standard Parking valet driver struck him while cutting illegally across 8th Avenue in downtown Seattle.

Jury Finds Clallam County 95 Percent at Fault After Rifle Training Accident Cost a Deputy His Leg

A Kitsap County jury found Clallam County 95 percent at fault when a sheriff's deputy's AR-15 discharged during a mandatory rifle qualification in March 2020, leaving him an amputee below the right knee. The September 17, 2026 verdict totaled $30,176,905 before fault was applied, and after the court applied the county's 95 percent share and other adjustments, the county was ordered to pay almost $28 million. The award includes $5 million to the deputy's wife for loss of consortium.

After trial: The jury's $30,176,905 gross verdict, with 95 percent fault on the county, came to $28.67 million; the judge adjusted it the next day, and The Seattle Times reported the county was ordered to pay almost $28 million, which is the figure we rank. The county said it was reviewing its legal options, and we found no appeal filing.

$28 Million Settlement for Teenager Left Quadriplegic After WSDOT Failed to Install Funded Highway Barrier

Washington state paid $28 million to a young woman left quadriplegic after her car struck an unguarded overpass pillar on I-5 near DuPont, where WSDOT had funding and a plan to install a protective barrier but never completed the work.

Federal Jury Awards $25 Million to Jail Detainee Over an Untreated Blood Clot That Cost Him His Leg

Javier Tapia was 42 when a blood clot went unaddressed for weeks during his 2018 incarceration at the Pierce County Jail in Tacoma, Washington, leading to gangrene and the amputation of his leg below the knee. Tapia sued Pierce County and its jail medical contractor, NaphCare, Inc., alleging deliberate indifference to his medical needs under the Fourteenth Amendment. Pierce County settled separately for $1 million and was dismissed before trial. In April 2025, after a jury trial in Seattle, a federal jury found NaphCare liable and awarded Tapia $5 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages, a total of $25 million. The district court denied NaphCare's post-trial motions, and NaphCare has appealed to the Ninth Circuit.

After trial: On appeal. The district court denied NaphCare's motions for judgment as a matter of law, a new trial and remittitur, so the $25 million stood, and NaphCare appealed to the Ninth Circuit in August 2025. See more