Top Wrongful Death Personal Injury Settlements
The largest personal injury settlements for wrongful death cases for one client or family, ranked by amount. Each links to the full story, the firm, and the record behind the number.
- $160 millionSettlementPA
U-Haul Pays $160 Million After Overfilled Propane Tank Kills Food Truck Owner and Her Daughter
A $160 million settlement -- the largest pre-verdict settlement in Pennsylvania court history -- resolved claims against U-Haul after an overfilled propane tank exploded at a North Philadelphia food truck, killing a mother and her teenage daughter and severely burning three others.
After trial: The $160 million figure is a pre-trial settlement, not a jury verdict; U-Haul and the victims' families settled less than a week before trial was set to begin. The settlement was not confidential, and broke down as $69.17 million, $54.3 million, and $36.47 million to the estates involved.
Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock Dodig2018 · Philadelphia Court of Common PleasRead the full story → - $50 millionSettlementMO
$50 Million Settlement After Durable Medical Equipment Supplier Ignored Pleas to Replace Dying Man's Breathing Device
Simon Law secured a $50 million wrongful death settlement after a young man with intellectual disabilities died when a national durable medical equipment supplier repeatedly ignored his mother's calls for a replacement breathing device.
- $40 millionSettlementGA
$40 Million Settlement After GDOT and Contractors Left a Broken I-85 Guardrail Unrepaired for Months
Jeb Butler and Matt Kahn, alongside co-counsel, secured a $40 million settlement against GDOT, a fence contractor, and a construction management firm after a guardrail left in disrepair for months on I-85 contributed to the death of Catrice Hunter.
- $40 millionSettlementPaidCT
$40 Million After a 6-Year-Old Drowned When His Arm Was Trapped in a Backyard Pool Drain Built Without Required 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, as itemised by Pool & Spa News and Aquatics International citing the Connecticut Law Tribune. The Town of Greenwich's $10 million share was a public municipal payment.
- $27 millionSettlementMN
George Floyd Family Secures $27 Million Settlement from Minneapolis in Wrongful Death Suit
The City of Minneapolis agreed to pay $27 million to resolve civil rights and wrongful death claims filed by George Floyd's family, the largest pretrial civil rights wrongful death settlement in U.S. history at the time of resolution.
- $24 millionSettlementVA
$24 Million Wrongful Death Settlement Sets Virginia Record After Nurse Killed by Commercial Truck
A $24 million settlement obtained for the family of a 33-year-old nurse killed when a commercial truck crossed the center line at highway speed is the largest reported wrongful death recovery in Virginia history, doubling the previous record.
Allen Allen Allen & Allen2025 · Virginia (mediated, settled at courthouse first day of trial)Read the full story → - $19.2 millionSettlementPaidNJ
Gas Utility Settles for $19.2 Million After Improperly Capped Line Kills Three Members of One Family in Elizabeth Explosion
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 → - $14.6 millionSettlementWA
Zackery Lystedt: $14.6 Million Settlement Against Tahoma School District for Catastrophic Youth Football Brain Injury
Richard Adler and co-counsel Mike Nelson secured a $14.6 million settlement for Zackery Lystedt, a 13-year-old Tahoma Junior High football player left with catastrophic brain damage after coaches returned him to play following a concussion in October 2006.
- $14.1 millionSettlementKY
$14.1 Million Settlement After College Wrestler Died of Heatstroke During Punishment Practice
The University of the Cumberlands paid $14.1 million to the family of Grant Brace, a 20-year-old wrestler who died of exertional heatstroke in August 2020 after coaches refused him water during a grueling punishment practice and failed to summon medical help.
Minner Vines Injury Lawyers, PLLC2023 · Williamsburg, KY (University of the Cumberlands)Read the full story → - $13.5 millionSettlementUT
$13.5 Million Settlement for Family of Slain Student-Athlete Lauren McCluskey
Parker and McConkie secured a $13.5 million settlement for the family of Lauren McCluskey, a University of Utah track athlete murdered on campus after police failed to act on her repeated stalking reports.
- $12 millionSettlementVA
Grain Delivery Driver Electrocuted at Silo: $12 Million Settlement Against Power Company and Property Owner
A 23-year-old grain truck driver was killed when an electrical arc jumped from an overhead high-voltage power line to the portable auger he was using at a commercial silo, and his family recovered $12 million from the power company and property owner.
- $12 millionSettlementNC
A Warehouse Visit, Falling Marble Slabs, and a $12 Million Wrongful-Death Settlement
Behzad "Al" Abedi was killed when stacked marble slabs fell on him at a Charlotte stone warehouse in 2019, and DeMayo Law Offices resolved his family's premises- and products-liability claims for $12 million.
- $12 millionSettlementKY
$12 Million Settlement for Breonna Taylor's Family After Fatal LMPD Raid
Louisville Metro Government paid $12 million to the family of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old licensed EMT shot by LMPD officers during a no-knock drug raid on March 13, 2020, the largest police-misconduct settlement in the city's history.
Sam Aguiar Injury Lawyers2020 · Louisville, KY (civil lawsuit against Louisville Metro Government)Read the full story → - $11 millionSettlementGA
$11 Million Settlement After Highway Mowing Crew Stopped Traffic and a Log Truck Rolled Over a Traveling Couple
A highway maintenance contractor whose crew illegally blocked both lanes of Georgia Highway 4 paid $11 million after a jackknifed log truck crushed the vehicle of a married couple, killing the husband and severely injuring his wife.
- $10.5 millionSettlementMO
$10.5 Million Settlement After Commercial Driver Kills Two Teens in Head-On Collision
A commercial truck driver crossed the center line on a Buchanan County road in July 2022, killing two teenagers and seriously injuring a third young passenger; five plaintiff families reached a $10.5 million global settlement in January 2024.
- $10 millionSettlementOH
Beverly Kinney Crosswalk Death: $10 Million Metro Settlement and Mandatory Driver Training
Cincinnati's Metro transit agency paid $10 million to the estate of Beverly Kinney, an 87-year-old struck and killed in a marked crosswalk by a bus driver with a suspended license, and agreed to overhaul its driver training.
- $10 millionSettlementHI
$10 Million Settlement for Family of Anesthesiologist Killed in Kakaako HPD Pursuit
The City and County of Honolulu agreed in October 2021 to pay $10 million to settle a wrongful-death claim brought by the family of cardiothoracic anesthesiologist William Travis Lau, who was struck and killed on a Kakaako sidewalk when a drunk driver fleeing an HPD high-speed pursuit veered off Ala Moana Boulevard in January 2019.
- $10 millionSettlementMO
Courthouse Employee's Asbestos Death Settles for $10 Million
Nancy Lopez worked at the Jackson County Courthouse in Kansas City for 27 years, where she was an administrative assistant to a judge, before she died of mesothelioma in October 2010 at 56. She had sued U.S. Engineering Co. and Jackson County, alleging the contractor mishandled asbestos wrapped pipes and air handling units during a 1983 and 1984 courthouse renovation and let asbestos dust spread through the building. Her family settled the wrongful death claim on November 18, 2011 for $10 million, with Jackson County's share reported at $400,000, after the case had been set for a lengthy jury trial. Her attorney, Lou Accurso, said it was the largest asbestos settlement in Missouri history at the time. The settlement did not cover a separate class action later brought by other courthouse employees.
After trial: A state-record Missouri asbestos settlement at the time; U.S. Engineering Co. paid the bulk and Jackson County paid $400,000.
The Accurso Law Firm, P.C.2011 · Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, heard by Buchanan County Circuit Judge Patrick Robb on Missouri Supreme Court appointment (settled before a scheduled jury trial)Read the full story → - $9.5 millionSettlementNC
$9.5 Million Wrongful-Death Settlement After a Fleeing Driver Ran a Stop Sign
Ricci Law Firm and co-counsel recovered $9.5 million for the family of an 84-year-old woman killed when a driver fleeing police ran a stop sign, with the case built on the negligent entrustment of the car to a man whose license was suspended over repeat DWI charges.
- $9 millionSettlementCA
$9 Million Settlement for Family of Teen Who Died of Heat Stroke During Football Practice
Adamson Ahdoot LLP secured a $9 million settlement for the family of a 15-year-old Jurupa Valley student who died three days after collapsing during a 104-degree football practice, after coaches failed to provide water, shade, or emergency care.
All wrongful death verdicts and settlements
283 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.
Rachel Furst of Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen served as co-chair of the plaintiffs' team that secured a $1.2 billion settlement for the families of 98 people killed when Champlain Towers South collapsed in Surfside, Florida -- the largest construction-disaster settlement in U.S. history.
Judd Rosen served as court-appointed lead attorney for the wrongful death and non-owner victim class in the Champlain Towers South collapse litigation, helping secure a $1.2 billion global settlement for the families of the 98 people killed when the Surfside, Florida condominium tower fell on June 24, 2021.
Court-appointed co-chair lead counsel Ricardo Martinez-Cid of Podhurst Orseck helped secure over $1 billion for the families of 98 people killed in the June 2021 Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside, Florida, with final approval reached in under a year.
After Champlain Towers South collapsed in the middle of the night and killed 98 people, Curtis Miner of Colson Hicks Eidson served as court-appointed liaison counsel for the wrongful death and personal injury claimants, part of a leadership team that reached a roughly $1.02 billion class settlement.
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.
Robert Eglet of Eglet Adams served as lead counsel for approximately 2,500 of the more than 4,400 plaintiffs who secured an $800 million settlement from MGM Resorts International over the October 1, 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting, one of the largest victim-compensation settlements in U.S. history.
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.
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.
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.
Robert Mongeluzzi helped secure a $265 million federal settlement on behalf of more than 125 claimants injured or killed when Amtrak Train 188 derailed at 106 mph on a Philadelphia curve in May 2015.
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.
A Miami federal jury found Tesla 33% liable for a 2019 Key Largo crash that killed a 22-year-old woman and severely injured her boyfriend, awarding $243 million including $200 million in punitive damages in the first federal trial over a fatal Autopilot accident.
A Bexar County civil jury awarded $210 million to the family of Andreen McDonald, killed by her husband in 2019, in what is reported to be the largest personal injury verdict in county history.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.