$5.2 Million Verdict for Tow Truck Driver Burned by Battery Acid in I-75 Spill

In 2011, a Simon's Trucking tractor-trailer transporting industrial batteries crashed on Interstate 75 in North Florida. The collision sent battery acid spilling across the roadway. Charles Lieupo, a tow truck driver who responded to clear the wreckage, sustained serious injuries to his legs from exposure to the sulfuric acid.

Lieupo sued Simon's Trucking under Florida Statute section 376.313(3), the private right of action in Florida's Water Quality Assurance Act, which imposes strict liability on parties responsible for pollutant discharges. Defense counsel argued at trial that his injuries came from fire ant bites rather than acid exposure, and that workers' compensation had already covered his medical costs. A Hamilton County jury rejected those arguments and awarded Lieupo $5,211,500, including $4 million for past and future pain and suffering.

Simon's Trucking appealed to Florida's First District Court of Appeal. In April 2018, the three-judge panel reversed the verdict, holding that section 376.313(3) authorizes recovery only for environmental and property damage, not personal injuries. The panel relied on precedent from the Florida Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Curd v. Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC, but certified the question to the high court as one of great public importance.

Wooten Kimbrough attorneys Michael J. Damaso II and Jackson W. Adams carried the case to Tallahassee. On December 19, 2019, the Florida Supreme Court issued its opinion in Lieupo v. Simon's Trucking, Inc., 286 So. 3d 143 (Fla. 2019). The court quashed the First District's decision, receding from Curd v. Mosaic and holding that the damages definition in Florida's 1970 Pollution Discharge Prevention and Control Act does not carry over into the 1983 Water Quality Assurance Act. Because the two statutes are distinct, the court held that section 376.313(3) does permit plaintiffs to recover for personal injuries caused by pollutant discharges. The case was remanded to the First District for further proceedings consistent with that ruling.

The decision altered the strict liability exposure of trucking companies, industrial carriers, and other businesses that transport hazardous materials on Florida roads. First responders and roadway workers who suffer chemical injuries from cargo spills gained a clear path to strict liability recovery that had previously been cut off by appellate precedent.