He Crossed the Center Line in a No-Passing Zone at 79 in a 40, Nearly Twice the Legal Limit. She Left the Crash a Quadriplegic. A Boone County Jury Returned $159 Million.
After trial: The verdict stands as returned. No appeal of the civil judgment is indicated in any source and none of Indiana's damages caps applies to a negligence claim against a private individual. Collectability is the whole story: Ryann Early is an individual serving a six-year sentence, no insurer is named in any coverage, and his own defense counsel said on the record that he wished there were actual dollars behind the award. The figure here is what the jury awarded, not what the Schnees have received. The $84,000,000 and $75,000,000 are one couple's claims from one injury, with the husband's award a derivative loss-of-consortium claim, so they are published as a single result.
Won by Waldron Tate Land LLC.
On October 18, 2020 Ryann Early, drunk and doing about 79 mph in a 40 zone, crossed into oncoming traffic on Albert S. White Drive in Whitestown and hit Sherry Schnee head-on. She broke her neck and is quadriplegic. He went to prison. On January 11, 2024 a Boone County jury awarded her $84,000,000 and her husband $75,000,000. Early is an individual with no insurer identified, and his own lawyer said afterward he wished there were actual dollars behind the number.
What happened
On October 18, 2020 Sherry Schnee was driving on Albert S. White Drive in Whitestown, Indiana. Ryann Early was coming the other way in a truck at roughly 79 mph in a posted 40 mph zone. In a no-passing zone he moved into her lane and hit her head-on. His blood alcohol concentration was .142 percent, nearly twice Indiana's .08 limit.
Schnee was flown to hospital with a broken neck. She is quadriplegic, with no feeling below her armpits.
The criminal case came first. In December 2022 Early was convicted of causing catastrophic injury while operating a vehicle while intoxicated, a Level 4 felony. On February 9, 2023 he was sentenced to six years in the Indiana Department of Correction followed by four years of probation. The Court of Appeals of Indiana affirmed on September 27, 2023, and the Indiana Supreme Court declined to take the case.
The civil case, Sherry Schnee and David Mark Schnee v. Ryann Early, No. 06D01-2101-CT-000003, was tried over three days in Boone Superior Court. On January 11, 2024 the jury returned $159,000,000: $84,000,000 to Sherry Schnee for her injuries and $75,000,000 to her husband David for loss of consortium.
Ann Marie Waldron led the trial team, with Katie Piscione and Brandon Tate of what was then Waldron Tate Bowen Land, now Waldron Tate Land, and Michael Simmons and Hannah Brady of Hume Smith Geddes Green & Simmons. "I was hoping for a huge verdict," Waldron told The Indiana Lawyer. "Our clients deserved it."
Benjamin Stevenson of Threlkeld & Stevenson defended Early. His comment afterward is the one that explains what this number is: "I wish there was some actual dollars for them."
No Indiana cap touches the award. The Medical Malpractice Act's limit applies only to qualified health care providers, the Tort Claims Act's limit only to government defendants, and Indiana has no general cap on damages against a private individual. Every dollar of the $159,000,000 is compensatory. The defendant is a man serving a prison sentence, and no insurer is identified anywhere in the reporting.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.The Indiana Lawyer, 17 January 2024: the $159 million Boone Superior Court verdict of January 11, 2024 in No. 06D01-2101-CT-000003; the October 18, 2020 head-on crash on Albert S. White Drive in Whitestown at about 79 mph in a 40 zone with a .142 blood alcohol concentration; Sherry Schnee's broken neck and quadriplegia; Early's December 2022 Level 4 felony conviction, February 9, 2023 sentence and failed appeal; plaintiffs' counsel Ann Marie Waldron, Katie Piscione and Brandon Tate of Waldron Tate Bowen Land and Michael Simmons and Hannah Brady of Hume Smith Geddes Green & Simmons; and defense counsel Benjamin Stevenson's statement
- 2.PublicLawLibrary.org: the $84 million and $75 million split between Sherry Schnee and her husband, and the description of the verdict as possibly the largest of its kind in Indiana
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