Mistrial Turns into $13.7M Verdict with New Jury Despite Plaintiff History of Drug Use
It is assumed, when using a crosswalk to cross a street, that traffic will obey the pedestrian right-of-way laws and stop. Matthew Clendenin’s client apparently assumed the same while walking his dog in Chula Vista, CA, but was mowed down by a negligent driver. It was an admitted liability, damages-only case, and the injury to his client was extensive. He suffered a broken thoracic spine which, due to pre-existing DISH syndrome that caused his spine to be more brittle, required a 7-level thoracic fusion from T3-T9, followed by a 5-level cervical fusion from C3-C7.
Mr. Clendenin’s client could never work in his existing job – a “dream job” driving big rigs for FedEx. He had fought hard to get to where he was, having come from a very rough past of methamphetamine addiction. Rather than trying to hide this past from the jury, Mr. Clendenin and his team embraced it and mentioned it through every facet of trial, showing that their client was human, that he fought through it and, at age 40, was able to kick the habit and go clean. This was prompted by the loss of his mom to a stroke, after which he became sober and landed a job on the loading docks at FedEx. He worked his way up, eventually landing that big rig driver dream job, which he then chose to put on hold to care for his ailing father. After 8 years of watching his father fall deeper into dementia, he lost him, as well, but was finally able to resume his life and work. Only nine months later, however, he was run down in that crosswalk and went from being a caregiver to needing care.
Having used Focus Graphics in the past, Mr Clendenin reached out for exhibits to show the extensive surgeries his client had already undergone, as well as an expected future surgery to fuse spinal levels T1-T2. It was decided to do an animation of the thoracic fusion as that was very impactful, and pre- and post- surgery colorizations of the imaging to show all of the damage and resulting hardware.
A mistrial was declared when a defendant was named who the judge had stated could not be mentioned to the jury at all. Despite that setback, the team jumped right back in and selected a new jury to start over. Defense tried to use Mr. Clendenin’s client’s former drug use against him, but with their own team sharing so much of his history, that backfired…they had already painted him as a strong man who had fought his demons and won, then turned his life around, and the jury loved the story. They also denied causation on the future surgery, with which the jury agreed; however, while the defense tried very hard to argue that he wasn’t totally disabled and could have worked a light duty job, the plaintiff team did a great job convincing the jury that their client, who was injured at age 59, likely would have worked up to at least the age of 70, maybe 75, and gave the LOE value up to age 70. The exhibits created by Focus Graphics were key in the discussion of disability as they showed a very visual story of their client’s damaged spine. While the jury felt the plaintiff’s ask was high at $99M, they deliberated for 9 hours and came back with a $13.7M verdict for the plaintiff, well above the $1M final pre-trial defense offer and their $4M ask during closing.
“There was no question about calling Focus Graphics on this case as our client’s spine was so damaged and we needed to not just tell, but to show that story to the jury. The amount of hardware he had to have placed in his spine would shock anyone. We needed the jury to see that to side with us on our client’s life-care plan and loss of future earnings, which they did. The animation and other visuals were key to this verdict.”
~Matthew Clendenin, Esq., San Diego, CA | Singleton Schreiber Injury Attorneys
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