Will Fowler · Ian Rapaport · Przemek Lubecki
$1.64 Million Verdict on $0 Offer contested liability trip and fall in Georgia
August 27, 2024 5:30 PM||TLU n Demand
Brooks Injury Law obtained a $1.64 million verdict in Georgia on June 12, 2024. The case was tried by Ian Rapaport and Will Fowler, who split liability and damages throughout the trial. The trial team also included attorneys Natanya Brooks and Meredith Watts, who collectively worked up the case for four years.
This was a premises liability case involving our client, Earnest Woody, who severely injured his back after stepping into an improperly compacted hole on the edge of his driveway in September 2018. The hole was dug by Defendant Cruz Construction, LLC, who was subcontracted through Elite Utilities, LLC to lay AT&T fiber optic cable under our client’s driveway.
In laying the cable, Cruz Construction dug a hole and then failed to properly compact the soil when filling it back in. As our client was unloading a case of water from his car early in the morning while it was dark, he stepped back off the driveway and the improperly compacted hole gave way. Mr. Woody fell backwards with the case of water landing on his chest, severely injuring his lower back. After conservative chiropractic care for a month, Mr. Woody ultimately needed surgery. Due to unforeseen complications from the first surgery, he was back under the knife a week later.
The case went to trial on June 10, 2024. Below is a summary of our key points from the trial:
- Cruz Construction had a $2 million insurance policy with State Farm. The case was mediated 3 years ago when all Defendants were in the case with only a minuscule offer. After the case was transferred, we settled with Elite to simplify the case and preclude the defense from having two counsel present at trial. State Farm never made any additional offers.
- The owner of Cruz Construction could not attend the trial because he was in Mexico with his family. His father died of Covid earlier in 2024 and his mother was sick from Covid as well. The parties agreed to a stipulation that the Judge read to the jury about Jesus Cruz not being at trial because of his family emergency.
- Our client, Earnest Woody, was the only live witness to testify at trial. We put Mr. Woody on the stand first, and then played video depositions of our expert, Kevin Bird, who had laid utility cable for 20+ years and dug up the hole where our client fell to expose an AT&T cable directly underneath. Mr. Bird opined that the only way the cable could have been there was if Cruz had dug a hole there to lay the cable. Other video depositions included three damage witnesses; Dr. Daftari, who performed the surgeries on Mr. Woody; and the 811 records custodian, who authenticated and testified about the 811 records. The 811 records showed Cruz Construction was digging in our client’s yard just two weeks before his fall and no other companies had called 811 for more than two months prior to that. These records proved to be critical, as Mr. Cruz attempted to claim he was at our client’s property in May 2018 (four months before our client fell).
- In addition to disputed liability, this was a difficult damages case because just three months after the back surgeries and only eight months after the fall itself, Mr. Woody was involved in a series of four rear-end car collisions between May 2019 and December 2022. We knew opposing counsel would seize on this at trial and therefore made the decision to limit damages to the time period from the fall (September 2018) through just before the first car wreck (May 2019). Mr. Woody’s medical expenses for this time totaled $164,000. We also chose to forego any lost wage damages because the client operated a cash business and was not a good record keeper.
- The closing was split between liability and damages. Ultimately, we asked the jury to award 10 times our client’s medical ($164,000) in damages. During the close, we had the verdict form on the screen for the jury to see with it filled out. Interestingly, defense counsel barely touched damages in his closing and gave the jury no alternative number. The jury went to deliberate around 4pm on Wednesday, and within approximately 30 minutes returned a verdict for the full $1.64 million.
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