Wrongful death settlement totals $3.275 million
Sullivan: The liability was pretty solid
$3.275M Settlement The parents of a 17-year-old girl who was killed when the vehicle she was a passenger in was hit by a train have settled their Jackson County wrongful death case against the railroad and the vehicle's driver for $3.275 million.
"We settled very early on in the suit," said Robert C. Sullivan, the attorney for the plaintiffs. "This was earlier mediation than we normally do, but they asked to mediate so we did. It was a pretty bad case. The liability was pretty solid.
"We didn't demand anything in the petition we just asked for a fair and reasonable amount," Sullivan added. "The first offer on it was fairly decent. It wasn't insulting."
On Sept. 29, 2004 Tearcyn Lewis was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Phillip Webb in Chillocothe, Mo.
The vehicle was hit on the passenger side, where Lewis was sitting, by an Iowa, Chicago & Eastern locomotive at a railroad grade crossing located on Mohawk Road in Chillocothe. The grade crossing was equipped with cross buck signs only, no lights or gates.
"Locomotives have three lights on them," Sullivan said. "They have a head light and two ditch lights on the front of the train. By law you can't run over 20 miles per hour unless you have all three lights. This train did not have the ditch lights."
Sullivan said information retrieved from the train's data recorder, similar to a black box in an automobile, revealed the train's speed was more than 40 miles per hour and traveling backwards.
"For whatever reason it was going in the other direction on the track," Sullivan said. "I don't know why. We didn't get into any discovery. We settled the case early before we took anyone's deposition."
Sullivan added that the train was not blowing its whistle to alert motorists it was approaching the intersection.
"They stopped blowing the whistle about 250 feet before the crossing, which they are also not supposed to do," he said. "They are supposed to blow it until they occupy the intersection."
After the collision the truck rolled. Lewis suffered major trauma, was ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene before paramedics could arrive.
Cheryl Lewis filed a wrongful death suit against IC&E and Webb shortly after the accident. Johnny Lewis later joined the suit.
In the suit, the parents also claimed that Webb failed to keep a proper lookout when approaching the crossing and that the sight lines at the crossing were obstructed by excessive vegetation.
Webb walked away from the collision with only minor injuries.
Webb settled with the Lewis' for the $25,000 policy limits of his automobile liability policy. IC&E settled for $3,250,000.
"They just thought it better to settle it so they did," Sullivan said. "We were happy with it. A lot of the times, even if we have strong liability cases, they'll drag it to the end, I think, to delay payment."
In Sullivan's practice, he works with a number of product liability cases involving automobile accidents and said he has worked on a few train collision cases before.
"It's satisfying in the end, but emotionally it's kind of a tough practice," he said. "Every one of our cases involves something tragic. It's difficult in some ways because all our cases involve death or people who are severely injured. But I really like it. It's really satisfying for us because we can represent people who otherwise wouldn't have a chance going against these large companies."
Type of action: Wrongful death
Type of injuries: death
Court/Case No./Date: Jackson County Circuit Court/04CV-232386/May 2, 2006
Caption: Cheryl Lewis, et. al v. Iowa Chicago & Eastern, et. al
Judge, Jury, ADR: mediation
Name of Judge: Judge Vernon E. Scoville
Verdict or settlement: $3,275,000.00 Settlement
Allocation of fault: N/A
Last offer: N/A
Last demand: N/A
Attorneys for Plaintiff: Robert L. Langdon and Robert C. Sullivan, Langdon & Emison, Lexington and Jim Valbracht of Chillocothe for Plaintiff Cheryl Lewis; John Turner of Kansas City for Plaintiff Johnny Lewis.
Insurance Carrier: Allied Insurance Company for defendant Webb
Plaintiff's Experts: None designated at time of settlement.
Defendants' Experts: None designated at time of settlement.
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