Top Wrongful Death Personal Injury Recoveries Confirmed Paid
Personal injury results for wrongful death cases where the record shows the money was paid, or the defendant is an insurer or institution that pays, ranked by amount.
- $105 millionVerdictReduced from $109 millionPaidPA
West Penn Power Faces a $109 Million Verdict in a Fatal Backyard Electrocution, Later Paid $105 Million
An Allegheny County jury found West Penn Power negligent for the splice failure that dropped a live 7,200-volt line on Carrie Goretzka in her own backyard. The 2012 verdict reached $109 million. The utility later paid a reported $105 million to drop its appeal.
After trial: West Penn Power dropped its appeal of the $109 million verdict in February 2013 and agreed to pay $105 million instead, ending the case without a court ruling on the appeal.
- $40 millionSettlementPaidCT
$40 Million Settlement After 6-Year-Old Drowned in Backyard Pool Drain Built Without Safety Devices
On July 26, 2007, a 6-year-old boy drowned in his family's backyard pool in Greenwich when his arm was sucked into a wall drain feeding a spillover spa. Connecticut had required dual drains and a vacuum-release device since 2004, a year before the pool was permitted, and the builder had installed neither. The pool company's president pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide in 2011, the first such prosecution of a pool builder in the country. By May 2013 the parents, Brian and Karen Cohn, had settled with all nine defendants for a combined $40 million, all of it directed to the water-safety foundation they created in their son's name.
After trial: The $40 million is the sum of five separately negotiated settlements with nine defendants, completed by May 2013, including $10 million from the Town of Greenwich. The proceeds went to the family's foundation.
- $19.2 millionSettlementPaidNJ
$19.2 Million Settlement for Elizabeth Gas Explosion That Killed Three Members of One Family
A gas explosion at a converted multi-family house in Elizabeth, New Jersey on November 11, 2015 badly burned six members of the Henderson family and, over the following weeks and months, killed three of them. The family sued the gas utility and the property owner, alleging an improperly capped gas line caused the blast. On February 11, 2019, a Union County Superior Court judge approved a $19.2 million settlement, reached in mediation, apportioned among three estates and three surviving claimants.
After trial: This was a mediated settlement approved by the court, not a litigated verdict, and no appeal followed. The $19.2 million figure is the total recovery before the deduction of court-approved attorney fees, funeral expenses and Medicaid liens; the percentages above apply to the net amount after those deductions.
Mazie Slater Katz & Freeman, LLC2019 · Superior Court of New Jersey, Union CountyRead the full story → - $9.75 millionSettlementPaidNJ
Family of Man Killed by Turnpike Guardrail Settles Claims for $9.75 Million
Patrick Sweeney, a 34-year-old computer salesman, was killed in August 2006 when the car service driving him to Newark Liberty International Airport lost control on the New Jersey Turnpike near the Route 80 interchange in Bergen County and struck a guardrail that pierced the passenger compartment. His widow, Kristin Sweeney, sued the contractor that built the guardrail, the engineering firms involved in its design and oversight, and the limousine company, arguing the guardrail had not been built to the specifications required by its design. Attorney Bruce Nagel represented the family. After a three-year fight the case settled in 2009 for a combined $9.75 million paid by four defendants, $4 million of it in a settlement with the contractor and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority. A separate, previously dismissed claim against the guardrail's end-terminal manufacturer, Trinity Highway Industries, was not part of the settlement.
After trial: The $9.75 million settlement with four defendants was negotiated, not a verdict, so no cap or remittitur applies, and it is treated as paid. A separate claim against the guardrail manufacturer was dismissed before trial, and a motion to reopen it has no reported outcome.
Nagel Rice, LLP2009 · Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Bergen CountyRead the full story → - $7.35 millionVerdictPaidNJ
$7.35 Million Verdict for Laborer Paralyzed by Falling Ladder, Brain-Damaged by Delayed Intubation
Jack D'Avila, a concrete laborer on a scrap-metal shredder installation in Jersey City, was struck on the head by an unsecured 20-foot extension ladder on May 18, 2005, fractured his cervical spine, and two days later suffered an anoxic brain injury when his ICU surgeon did not intubate him before he went into respiratory distress. He spent three years on a ventilator and died in July 2008. After a four-month trial in Middlesex County, a jury found the site owner Hugo Neu, the installer Femco Machine Company, and trauma surgeon Patricia Schrader liable and awarded his estate, widow, and two children $7,346,363, entered as an $8.54 million judgment with interest. The Appellate Division affirmed the verdict and judgment in a published 2015 opinion, remanding only indemnification questions among the defendants.
After trial: Affirmed. The Appellate Division affirmed the verdict and judgment on August 10, 2015, and its remand concerned only fault allocation for indemnification and could not reduce the plaintiffs' recovery.
Blume Forte Fried Zerres & Molinari, P.C.2012 · Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Middlesex County, New BrunswickRead the full story → - $6.45 millionVerdictReduced from $27.7 millionPaidLA
$27.7 Million Verdict for Offshore Rigger Killed by a Broken Rope, Paid Out at $6.45 Million
Walter Jackson, 48, was a rigger on an offshore platform 65 miles south of Lake Charles. The crew was lowering sections of corroded firewater pipe when the manila rope holding a 131-pound section broke. He was standing in a landing zone nobody had cleared, and it killed him instantly.
After trial: Paid and satisfied. The $27,707,930 verdict of February 2, 2023 was cut by fault allocation and remittitur, the Fifth Circuit affirmed on March 28, 2025 except for the widow's award, which was reduced on remand, and a Satisfaction of Judgment was filed July 1, 2025.
Arnold & Itkin2025 · U.S. District Court, Western District of Louisiana (Lake Charles)Read the full story → - $6.4 millionSettlementPaidMD
Baltimore Pays Family of Freddie Gray $6.4 Million After Fatal Spinal Injury in Police Van
Freddie Gray, 25, suffered a fatal spinal injury while being transported in a Baltimore police van after his arrest on April 12, 2015, and died a week later. In September 2015 the city agreed to pay his family $6.4 million, and the Board of Estimates approved the payment unanimously on September 9. The city admitted no liability, and the money was paid in two installments from the city's settlement reserve.
After trial: The Board of Estimates unanimously approved the settlement on September 9, 2015, with payment in two installments from the city's legal settlement reserve. The city did not admit liability.
Murphy Falcon & Murphy2015 · City of Baltimore, Board of Estimates (pre-suit civil settlement), MarylandRead the full story → - $5 millionSettlementPaidCT
$5 Million Settlement With Greenwich for Family of 15-Year-Old Who Died by Suicide After School Bullying
A 15-year-old Greenwich High School sophomore died by suicide on August 27, 2013, the first day of the school year, after more than four years of bullying at Western Middle School and the high school. His parents sued the Town of Greenwich and its Board of Education in 2015, alleging staff knew about more than 25 bullying reports and never followed the district's mandatory anti-bullying policy. After the Appellate Court rejected the board's sovereign immunity defense in 2018 and the Supreme Court declined review, the town agreed in February 2023 to pay $5 million weeks before jury selection, the largest school bullying settlement by a Connecticut municipality.
After trial: Settlement approved by Greenwich town boards in February 2023 and funded by $930,831.13 in town money plus the town's liability insurer. Before settlement, the trial court and Appellate Court rejected the sovereign immunity defense (184 Conn.
Silver Golub & Teitell LLP2023 · Stamford Superior Court, Connecticut (Stamford-Norwalk judicial district)Read the full story → - $4.75 millionSettlementPaidCA
$4.75 Million Settlement With University of California Over Cal Football Player's Death After Workout
Cal football lineman Ted Agu, 21, died on Feb. 7, 2014 after a team conditioning workout, despite carrying sickle cell trait known to the program. His parents sued, and the University of California admitted liability. In April 2016 it settled for $4.75 million and agreed to athletics safety reforms and a permanent memorial in the team locker room.
After trial: The university admitted liability in court papers about three months before the April 2016 settlement, and no appeal followed. The settlement was paid by the University of California, a public institution, and came with binding safety reforms for Cal athletics.
The Yerrid Law Firm and Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP2016 · Alameda County Superior Court, OaklandRead the full story → - $3.51 millionVerdictPaidID
Idaho Jury's $3.51 Million Award for Teen Killed in Driver's Ed Crash Upheld Against Blaine County School District
A 15-year-old boy died when a Blaine County School District driver-education car was struck during a three-point turn on U.S. Highway 20 near Carey in snow and fog. In 2013 a Blaine County jury found the instructor entirely at fault and reckless, and awarded the boy's parents about $3.51 million. The Idaho Supreme Court affirmed the verdict on 30 March 2015.
After trial: The Idaho Supreme Court affirmed the full verdict on 30 March 2015 and denied rehearing on 23 April 2015, holding that the reckless-conduct finding kept the statutory cap on noneconomic damages from applying. The district's business manager said at the time of the verdict that its insurer would cover the judgment.
Hepworth Law Office2013 · District Court of the Fifth Judicial District, Blaine County, IdahoRead the full story →
All wrongful death verdicts and settlements
410 results, largest first
In December 2011, a Fayette County, Texas jury awarded the family of an 8-year-old Splendora boy $150.37 billion after he was doused with gasoline and set on fire by a 13-year-old neighbor in 1998, two weeks after the same neighbor sexually assaulted him. The boy survived third-degree burns over 99 percent of his body for nearly 13 years before dying in April 2011 of a skin cancer linked to his injuries. The defendant, Don Wilburn Collins, never appeared to answer the civil suit, and the jury awarded $370 million in actual damages plus roughly $150 billion in punitive damages, the largest civil verdict in U.S. history. Attorney Craig Sico, who represented the family, said from the outset that the judgment was not collectible and was intended to pressure prosecutors into reopening the long-dormant criminal case. Prosecutors did reopen the case, and Collins was later convicted of capital murder in a separate criminal proceeding.
A Pensacola jury awarded Cynthia Robinson $23.6 billion in punitive damages against R.J. Reynolds over the 1996 lung cancer death of her 36-year-old husband, the largest single-plaintiff award of Florida's Engle tobacco litigation, but the trial judge called the number constitutionally excessive, an appeals court ordered a full retrial over improper closing arguments, and a second jury returned a complete defense verdict in 2019, so the estate ultimately collected nothing.
Frantz Law Group, representing roughly 5,000 victims, helped negotiate a $13.5 billion PG&E bankruptcy settlement covering tens of thousands of survivors and families from the 2015 Butte, 2017 North Bay, and 2018 Camp wildfires.
Leavitt, Yamane and Soldner represented Maui wildfire survivors and victims' families in the $4.037 billion global settlement resolving approximately 450 lawsuits arising from the August 2023 Lahaina fire.
A Polk County jury awarded $110 million in compensatory damages and $1 billion in punitive damages over the death of 69-year-old Arlene Townsend, who fell 17 times at the Auburndale Oaks Healthcare Center, in a Wilkes & McHugh case against Trans Healthcare entities that had defaulted, stopped defending, and were already insolvent and in receivership, which is why the judgment was largely symbolic and the estate ultimately recovered only a small share of a later multi-estate settlement.
The families of 98 people killed in the June 2021 Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside, Florida, recovered over $1 billion through a class settlement run by a court-appointed Plaintiffs' Steering Committee, with final approval reached in under a year.
Sol Weiss and Larry Coben of Anapol Weiss served as co-lead class counsel in the landmark NFL concussion multidistrict litigation, securing a settlement valued at nearly $1 billion for thousands of retired players diagnosed with serious neurological conditions.
In July 1999, a Philadelphia jury awarded $907 million against Ira Einhorn for the 1977 killing of his girlfriend, Helen 'Holly' Maddux, in a civil wrongful death and survival action filed by her family. Einhorn was a fugitive living in France at the time and sent no attorney, so the court directed a verdict for the family on liability and left the six-member jury to decide damages alone. The jury deliberated a little over an hour before returning $752 million in punitive damages and $155 million in compensatory damages. Firm founder James E. Beasley represented the Maddux family. The suit was never intended to collect money from a fugitive with no assets; it was filed to stop Einhorn from profiting off book or movie deals about the case.
Steven Marks and Kristina Infante of Podhurst Orseck secured a combined $844 million in wrongful-death judgments for 43 families of passengers killed when LaMia Flight 2933 crashed near Medellin, Colombia, in November 2016, killing 71 of the 77 people aboard.
A Starr County jury unanimously awarded more than $1.6 billion combined to the families of two workers killed in a 2023 explosion at the Pecos Liquids Handling Facility, with $812 million going to the Garcia Peña family and roughly $809 million to the Alaffa family, finding owner Upton Assets, LLC grossly negligent, though the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy about two weeks before the verdict and collection remains uncertain.
An $800 million settlement from MGM Resorts International resolved claims by more than 4,400 plaintiffs over the October 1, 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting in Las Vegas, one of the largest victim-compensation settlements in U.S. history.
Lewis Butler, a security guard, was shot eight times and killed in November 2023 during an armed robbery at an internet cafe in Havana, Florida. The cafe's operators had not reported a robbery three weeks earlier in which the gun used against him was stolen. In December 2025 a Gadsden County jury awarded his widow $779,389,024, including $550 million for pain and suffering and $225 million for loss of companionship.
A St. Louis County jury returned a $745 million verdict against nitrous oxide distributor United Brands and local head shop Coughing Cardinal after finding the companies conspired to sell Whip-It! canisters as an inhalant to a driver who passed out behind the wheel and fatally struck 25-year-old Marissa Politte outside her workplace.
A Harris County jury awarded $640 million to the family of David Lester Loree II, a journeyman pipefitter fatally crushed when a top-heavy HVAC unit being lifted by TNT Crane and Rigging overturned in high winds at a Texas A&M University-San Antonio construction site in September 2021.
A Clark County jury awarded $550 million, $50 million compensatory and $500 million punitive, to Nimfa Escobia after her husband Marcial was killed by a driver traveling 107 mph while impaired by alcohol, methamphetamine, ecstasy, and marijuana.
The family of Greg Sharrigan, killed when a gas leak ignited at his Maynard home in September 2021, sued Eversource for $450 million, alleging the utility detected the underground leak three years before the fatal explosion and never fixed it.
A Dallas County jury found developer Greystar liable for the 2019 tower crane collapse that killed 29-year-old Kiersten Smith in her apartment, returning an $860 million verdict that Jason and Cory Itkin helped win for her family. The trial court cut the $500 million exemplary award under the Texas statutory cap before signing judgment in August 2023, entering $360,012,006 in compensatory damages jointly and severally against the three Greystar entities plus prejudgment interest, and Greystar's appeal, argued in February 2026, is undecided.
A Hernando County jury returned a $330 million verdict for Angela Stone after a drunk driver ran a stop sign and fatally struck a minivan carrying her 13-year-old daughter.
An Orange County jury awarded $310 million to the parents of Tyre Sampson, the 14-year-old who fell to his death from the Orlando FreeFall drop tower at ICON Park in 2022, in a case tried by Kimberly Wald and Michael Haggard against ride manufacturer Funtime Handels GmbH, which sent no lawyer or representative to the trial, leaving collection of the judgment from the absent Austrian company uncertain.
Jamie Lebovitz served on the federal MDL Plaintiff's Steering Committee for the Alaska Airlines Flight 261 disaster, representing 18 families in confidential individual settlements as part of a broader litigation that recovered more than $300 million for surviving relatives of the 88 people killed.
A Kaufman County jury awarded $296 million in compensatory damages against Koch Industries after a corroded, unmaintained butane pipeline exploded and killed two teenagers on August 24, 1996.
A 565-foot crawler crane toppled across a Tribeca street in 2016, killing a young mathematician; the case settled for $272.5 million.
After Amtrak Train 188 derailed in Philadelphia in May 2015, killing eight and injuring more than 200, Kline & Specter's Thomas R. Kline led the plaintiffs' negotiations that produced a $265 million settlement fund for the victims.
A Dallas jury found Charter Communications liable for the December 2019 murder of 83-year-old customer Betty Jo McClain Thomas by Roy Holden Jr., a Spectrum field technician who had serviced her home the day before, and for forging her signature on an arbitration agreement after her death. The jury awarded $375 million in actual damages and $7 billion in punitive damages. The family then remitted the punitive award down to twice the compensatory damages, in line with the due-process ratio limits the U.S. Supreme Court set in State Farm v. Campbell, and the trial court entered judgment for $1.147 billion. The family later agreed to a further remittitur to $262 million rather than keep defending the larger figure on appeal. Charter then settled confidentially for less than that, funded by its liability insurance, while its appeal to the Fifth Court of Appeals was still pending, and the appeal was dismissed at Charter's own request.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.