Our firm obtained a verdict of $1,063,807.37 for our client this week. Great win for a wonderful 22-year-old mother of a one-year-old at the time of the accident.
Facts of This Truck Accident Case
This was a hotly contested liability case. Our client contended she was injured when the Defendant, driving a full gasoline tanker, ran a red light. The defendant claimed he had a green light, and that our client must have had the red light. The accident happened at the intersection of Pennington Avenue and Church Street in Baltimore City. Our client’s car was totaled, and the gas tanker was damaged, which caused a gasoline spill. Our client had her one-year-old son in the car when the crash happened and had to watch him scream for his mom in a stranger’s arms while our client was trapped in her car due to her badly broken leg.
There were liability witnesses on both sides. The pivotal witness was a young neighborhood boy was eleven years old at the time of the accident. He testified that he saw the gas tanker run the red light. The primary witness for the defense was a man who had been having a few beers that afternoon on a front porch near the scene of the accident. He testified that the gas tanker had a green light as he went under it. Based on conversations with the jurors after the verdict, the jury was persuaded by the young boy’s testimony. He is a very bright young man who made an excellent witness.
Our client had a horrific right leg injury. She fractured her tibia and fibula which required two surgeries. Now she has a plate and eighteen screws in her leg, permanent scarring, and walks with a limp. Her treating doctor testified at trial that her injuries are permanent and that she will need a fusion surgery in the future.
She was 25 at the time of trial, and her life expectancy is 52.8 more years. She lost nearly a year of her life recovering from this accident.
Trial
Our trial judge was the Hon. Sylvester Cox. Judge Cox is a former Baltimore City prosecutor who has tried many, many jury cases as a lawyer before being appointed to the bench. Appearing before him was a pleasure. His rulings were fair, although they did not always go in our direction. He was attentive to the arguments of the lawyers, and he was great at putting the witnesses and jurors at ease. He was a stickler for details and expected excellence.
Cases like this remind me of why I became a lawyer representing injury victims. It is a great feeling to represent people who need our help. Our client is a remarkable young woman who, despite adversity, stayed upbeat and kept her faith that everything happens for a reason, and that, in the end, justice would be served. During the three years between her accident and the trial, she stayed focused on her job, her education, and her son and let nothing keep her down.
This case should remind us all that our justice system works. Our lawyers believe that helping a person who has a terrible injury because of someone else’s negligence is always a case worth pursuing, even in a contributory negligence state like Maryland. The only settlement offer, in this case, was $25,000.00, and that did not come until two weeks before trial. That is less than the client’s medical bills of $63,807.37 (which must be repaid to her health insurer).