$28.5 Million Settlement for Special-Needs Boy Left Alone by School District
Won by Wilshire Law Firm.
An 11-year-old with an IEP requiring door-to-door transport was abandoned at the school curb by district staff, struck by a car on a four-lane road, and left with permanent brain damage; the $28.5 million settlement against Victor Elementary School District was the largest pedestrian accident settlement in California in 2019.
What happened
On February 3, 2017, staff at Puesta Del Sol Elementary School in Victorville walked Fabian Sanchez, then 11 years old, to the edge of campus and left him to cross a busy four-lane road by himself. That act violated an explicit requirement in the boy's Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that the district provide curb-to-curb transportation because of his special-needs status. Within minutes, a vehicle traveling approximately 50 mph struck Fabian as he tried to cross.
The injuries were catastrophic. Fabian suffered brain swelling, brain bleeding, a broken jaw in two places, a broken leg, and a split tongue. He was placed in an induced coma at Loma Linda Medical Center, where he remained for months. By the time the litigation reached a courtroom, his medical team confirmed that his cognitive function and speech were permanently impaired, and that he would require round-the-clock care for the rest of his life.
Attorneys Bobby Saadian, Jon C. Teller, and Daniel B. Miller of Wilshire Law Firm, co-counseling with Rahul Ravipudi, Paul Traina, and Ian Samson of Panish Shea & Boyle LLP, pursued the case on two tracks. A judge conducted a bifurcated bench trial on liability and found Victor Elementary School District solely negligent. The damages phase was scheduled to proceed to jury when, on November 5, 2019, the district agreed to a $28.5 million settlement covered by its insurance carrier.
The resolution included non-monetary terms that extended beyond the Sanchez family. Victor Elementary School District agreed to implement board-level policy changes covering IEP transportation obligations, obtain independent third-party evaluations of its special education practices, and create web-based resources for parents of students on IEPs and 504 plans. Those commitments addressed the same procedural gap that led to Fabian's injury.
TopVerdict.com ranked the result the number-one pedestrian accident settlement in California for 2019 and the number-two personal injury settlement statewide across all categories, listing the gross figure as $28,715,000. The KTLA and VVNG news coverage reported the $28.5 million figure consistent with settlement documents released by counsel.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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