Top verdicts & settlements of 2005
Western Part Of Missouri Dominates Top Verdicts
The western part of Missouri did well again when it came to ranking the largest verdicts in the state.
Missouri Lawyers Weekly's 2005 Top Verdicts and Settlements ranked the majority of the highest plaintiffs' verdicts from two Western District counties — Jackson and Jasper. The same counties also saw the largest verdicts last year.
Nine of the top 20 highest verdicts came from Jackson County and three from Jasper County. The City of St. Louis, a traditional hot spot for law suits, had five verdicts originate from its circuit courts.
Stories and charts reviewing the largest verdicts appear inside, beginning on page 18.
Plaintiffs' Verdicts
The highest plaintiffs' verdict for 2005 was $25 million for a truck and auto collision in Jackson County. Kansas City attorneys Grant L. Davis and Scott Bethune were the lead lawyers in the case who represented a girl who suffered a skull fracture and brain injury from the accident. The attorneys used an aerial photograph of the highway under construction with warning signs superimposed over it. See story page 19.
The second largest verdict, $20 million, belonged to Independence, Mo., attorneys Kenneth B. McClain and Steven E. Crick. They sued a tobacco company on behalf of a family that lost their 73-year-old mother to lung cancer. The woman died after having smoked for 50 years. The plaintiff was the second to win a tobacco lawsuit in Missouri and the first to receive punitive damages. A key moment in the trial was when McClain was able to get the defendant's expert witness to admit to a link between smoking and the plaintiff's injuries.
A St. Louis City Circuit Court jury awarded $17 million to a railroad conductor who injured his brain after falling from a broken railcar step. St. Louis attorneys Steven Stolze and Eric Holland represented the man in his FELA case. At trial the plaintiffs accepted the railroad's admission of liability for the broken step, but in a similar case against another railroad, the plaintiffs rejected admissions of liability. See the story on page 21 to find out the outcomes from both cases.
A fatal DWI collision ended in a $15 million verdict for the parents of a 17-year-old girl. John Kurtz of Kansas City tried the case in Jackson County and opted at the last minute not to pursue aggravating circumstances damages in this wrongful death claim. Kurtz explains his reasons for this approach.
Attorneys McClain and Crick were back again tied in the top four with two verdicts for $15 million each. The lawyers wrapped up their "popcorn" cases in 2005 against a butter flavoring manufacturer in Jasper, Mo. Of the company's 30 current or former employees who filed suit alleging lung damage from breathing chemicals at the plant, eight went to trial over the last two years while the others settled. The defendant has paid out over $53 million to the plaintiffs.
The total dollar amount of the top 20 verdicts added up to $114 million, down from $140 million last year.
Trend or not
Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys President Kent Emison played down any indication of a trend in the Western counties of the state. "It don't think it has anything to do with the Western District," Emison said. "It has more to do with the lawyers trying the cases and the significant injuries of the cases."
He pointed out that the $25 million auto/truck collision verdict in Jackson County should not have come as a surprise as to its size. "If they had tried that case in St. Louis or out state, they would have gotten a similar type of verdict," he said.
The fact that there were a few large verdicts from Jasper County, a more conservative venue than Jackson County, proves the point that good lawyers with a strong case will bring in a large verdict anywhere in the state regardless of the jury pool, he explained.
"If these cases had been tried in St. Louis, Columbia or Springfield, it would have had similar type of verdicts," he said.
Jack Bangert, vice-president of the Missouri Organization of Defense Lawyers, agreed that from a defendant's point of view, juries even in more plaintiff friendly venues are willing to give you a fair chance. "If you have a good defense case, a jury will go with you, even in downtown Kansas City," Bangert said. "But if they get to the issue of damages, it might surprise you on their liberal view of damages."
Bangert said there was little to indicate a trend at this point because each verdict must be analyzed on case by case basis. "Each case and jury is individual, so I don't see a particular trend," Bangert said.
Fewer med-mal cases
Emison did point out that plaintiffs have been seeing less medical malpractice verdicts, in part because of tort reform rhetoric that has "poisoned" jury pools. Only two of the top 20 verdicts in the survey were medical malpractice cases.
"From all the statistics I have seen over the last three to five years, plaintiffs' medical malpractice verdicts are down as well as the amounts," he said.
As to the top settlement of 2005, attorneys Anita and Gary Robb of Kansas City negotiated $9.2 million on behalf of their client. The case involved a bad faith lawsuit against a defendant's insurance company for failing to pay the plaintiff on their successful claim against the defendant.
Eight of the top 10 settlements were from the Western District of Missouri, while the other two were from the Eastern District.
Defense verdicts
The largest defendants' verdict for the year was $17.3 million turned in by St. Louis attorney Thomas J. MaGee in defense of Laidlaw Transit, Inc. Laidlaw Transit was sued for negligently dropping an 11-year-old boy off on the wrong side of the street. The boy was hit by truck while trying to cross the street, causing serious brain injury and leading to a partial lobectomy. (See the verdict report on p. 10)
The actual verdict was a plaintiff's verdict of $7.7 million. But when reduced by the comparative fault of the plaintiff, the verdict dropped significantly. The last demand in the case was $17.5 million.
The amount of the defense verdict is calculated by subtracting the verdict from the last demand.
The second largest defense verdict, featured on page 25, involved a medical malpractice claim against Cox Medical Center where the plaintiff had asked $20-$78 million at trial, with a last demand before trial of $15 million. Attorney Clifton Smart III, who typically handles plaintiffs' cases, represented the hospital and used an animated video which proved to be a key factor in winning the case.
The third highest defense verdict — a last demand of $10 million — involved a products liability case against DaimlerChrysler for its minivan. In that trial, the plaintiffs asked the jury for $400 million in punitive damages and several million in damages. Defense attorney Colvin G. Norwood of New Orleans represented the car manufacturer in the wrongful death case.
Ground Rules — This survey includes the top verdicts to individual plaintiffs (and their families) who were injured in a single incident and had their claims tried in one case before the same jury. The list does not include business-against-business suits, bench trials, consolidated cases or verdicts that were the result of uncontested litigation.
Several plaintiffs' cases were excluded from this year's survey because they did not meet our criteria. They included a $20 million breach of contract and tortious interference with business relations case against State Farm Auto Insurance. Kansas City attorneys Norman E. Siegel and George A. Hanson represented the plaintiffs.
Jefferson County was awarded $14.3 million in a lawsuit against Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc. for breach of contract and economic losses. Plaintiff attorneys were Dana Hockensmith and Scott McKinnis of St. Louis.
Floyd Finch and Maxwell Carr-Howard of Blackwell Sanders Pepper & Martin in Kansas City won a $13 million verdict in an unfair competition and fraud case against Viacom Outdoor, Inc.
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