Case Study
$1,027,000.00 Settlement on Pedestrian Accident/Dram Shop Case.
Nothing good ever happens after midnight. Attorney Snover’s client, a pedestrian, was walking home in a snowstorm at 2:30 am after allegedly having been served while visibly intoxicated by Bar A with a blood alcohol measured at 0.267, a full 30 minutes after the accident. He was hit while crossing the street by a car driven by an intoxicated driver (driver 1) who was alleged to be served while visibly intoxicated having a blood alcohol level measured at 0.113, about 1 ½ hours after the accident, and three hours after leaving Bar B. Attorney Snover used a toxicology expert to estimate that Driver 1’s BAC would have between 0.138 %, and 0.163 % at the time she left Bar B, meaning that she was served while visibly intoxicated. Driver 1, who was driving home from Bar B, had rear-ended another driver in a different town on her way home, and was driving with one headlight. It was not clear if driver one was making an illegal turn going the wrong way onto a one-way street at the time of the accident or whether she was going straight. After she struck the pedestrian and knocked him down in the snow, a following car (driver 2) immediately struck and drug the pedestrian approximately 30 feet. Because of the snow, there was no physical evidence of even which road the pedestrian was crossing at the time of the accident, and because of the pedestrian’s condition/injury, he had no recollection of the day’s incidents. The pedestrian suffered multiple facial fractures and head injuries. An expert accident reconstructionist was employed to demonstrate that it was equally plausible that the pedestrian was crossing the side street and not in front of the drivers.
Primary Issues in the Case:
- The driver’s had low insurance coverage limits and no other assets, which meant that the only way that the pedestrian could make a substantial financial recovery was if his attorney could prove that the accident happened because the bars served those involved while they were visibly intoxicated (dram shop action), contributing to causing the accident. It is negligence per se (as a matter of law) for a liquor licensee (bar) to serve any person who is visibly intoxicated.
- Unless Attorney Snover could show that the pedestrian was less than 51% responsible for his own accident by walking into the streets while intoxicated in a snowstorm, then there could be no financial recovery. (In Pennsylvania, if the Plaintiff is more than 50% comparatively negligence, he can recover nothing in the case);
- There were no witnesses in Bar B that testified that they saw driver 1 served while visibly intoxicated, and all witnesses in the bars were hostile to the claim;
- There was almost no physical evidence at the scene to aid in the reconstruction of the accident.
- After the initial hospitalization, the pedestrian could not afford to have proper evaluations or treatment concerning his conditions, making proof of continuing damages lacking.
Solutions Applied to Result in Substantial Settlement:
Attorney Snover hired experts in accident reconstruction which helped support driver #2’s story that he thought driver #1 was turning illegally at the time of the accident the wrong way onto a one-way street which would support the theory that the pedestrian was not crossing in front of the drivers and had no reason to expect any vehicle to turn onto the side street where he was crossing. Thus, the pedestrian would not be causally negligent.
- Attorney Snover hired a toxicology expert who scientifically related back the blood alcohol levels to help support the contention that both bars served the participants in the accident while they were visibly intoxicated, causing the accident.
Attorney Snover obtained police body cams which captured Driver 1’s passenger making damning statements to police about “partying,” and “you can obviously see we have both been drinking.” The witness later testified to support his driver friend but was effectively destroyed by Attorney Snover on cross-examination with the video.
Encrypted WhatsApp messages were obtained, revealing statements from servers at Bar A acknowledging the severe extent of Plaintiff’s intoxication before leaving the bar.
- To address the long-term medical damages of the pedestrian, Attorney Snover hired Board-Certified Independent Medical Examiners in Neuropsychiatry, Neuro-Ophthalmology, and Orthopedics to testify, as well as a Life-Care Planner to estimate projected future medical expenses needed because of the accident.
$893,000 Verdict in Slip & Fall Case:
Attorney Snover’s client was a security guard working for a security company hired to provide security to school district property. While making rounds in the early morning, he slipped and fell down some steps due to ice on both the steps and the handrail, which he was unable to see due to inadequate lighting. The steps also lacked a skid-resistant surface. Defendant claimed that Plaintiff was the one that was supposed to do the salting, but although he helped with that at times in the past, that was not in his job description. The School District was held 100% liable for the accident. As a result of the accident, he suffered three disrupted lumbar discs and some fractured ribs. Attorney Snover was able to overcome the absolute defenses of Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act immunity by arguing that the steps were not part of a “sidewalk” for which no claim would have been permitted. Attorney Snover was also able to avoid the total defense of absolute workers’ compensation immunity by virtue of classifying the Plaintiff’s as an independent contractor, who would still be able to assert a civil claim. The jury’s verdict was molded to the $500,000 statutory cap, which is the most that anyone is able to recover by law against a political subdivision.
Jury Verdict/Judgment of $526,035.023 in Slip & Fall, plus $100,000 Workers Compensation Settlement:
This case required creative lawyering on both establishing liability and connecting the damages to the accident. Attorney Snover’s client tripped and fell over unsecured wires that had been lying by her desk for two years prior to the accident, and which she obviously knew about. (You can probably hear the landlord arguing that Plaintiff was careless since she knew about the wires and still tripped over them). The space was leased by Plaintiff’s employer, and the employer is the one who placed the wires creating the dangerous condition. The employer could not be sued civilly because it was protected by workers’ compensation immunity. Plaintiff aggravated her pre-existing knee arthritis and subsequently had a partial, and then a total knee replacement, all paid for by workers’ compensation in addition to her lost wages. There was a serious question as to whether she would have needed the knee replacements even without the accident. Prior to the trial of the civil case, Attorney Snover negotiated a workers’ compensation settlement of an additional $100,000.00, together with an assignment to Plaintiff of the employer’s subrogation right to recover $228,347.10 that it had paid in medical benefits.This meant not only that Plaintiff would not have to pay back the lien to the employer if she won, but that she could collect the lien as her own loss if she won. The employer was willing to agree to this because it could not imagine that the Plaintiff would ever win her civil case against the landlord since the landlord did not create the dangerous condition and had turned over possession of the premises to the employer.
There was a serious legal issue as to whether the landlord could be held liable at all because it was the employer who put the wires in over which she tripped, and the landlord claimed it was out of possession of the premises because it leased the space, and therefore, control to the employer. Attorney Snover hired a civil engineer who testified that the exposed wire was a violation of the Fire Code, interfering with a means of egress, which was also the responsibility of the landlord to secure. It was an accident just waiting to happen. Attorney Snover successfully obtained a jury verdict finding the employer 100% liable for all damages, but the trial court would not allow Plaintiff to collect the amount of lien because it was the employer who paid the medical expenses and not the Plaintiff. This was an error made by the trial court. To obtain complete relief, Attorney Snover had to appeal to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania and get the trial Judge reversed on this novel point of law ,which resulted in $228,347.10 being added to the verdict. All is well that ends well.
$1,650,000 Arbitration Verdict:
Terms Confidential.
$1,135,000.00 Settlement Wrongful Death/Survival Motor Vehicle Collision:
75-year-old passenger who was recovering from bypass surgery rendered quadriplegic and died 5 months later when the opposing vehicle turned left in front of his driver at a signalized intersection, resulting in a serious crash.
$700,000.00 Settlement of Hunting Accident Case:
Plaintiff was shot by a negligent turkey hunter who, after trading turkey calls with the Plaintiff, fired his shotgun in the direction of the Plaintiff’s turkey call without visually confirming that he was shooting at a turkey, resulting in serious eye injury.
$450,000 Settlement in Fall on Apartment Steps which gave way:
Plaintiff had asked the landlord to fix wooden steps that were rotting at his leased apartment. The landlord promised to do so, but before he did, six months later, the step gave way, causing Plaintiff to fall and strike the back of his head on another step. He developed a headache which continued to get worse over the next 6 months, when it was discovered that he had a slow brain bleed, and had to have a huge clot surgically removed. You don’t always know how badly you have been injured in the early days following a fall. You should always get checked out right away after such incidents. Fortunately for him, the surgery was successful.
$440,000 Settlement of Pedestrian Car Strike Case:
Landscaper struck while working by an oblivious elderly man, resulting in multiple small fractures of the vertebrae and 14 lacerations resulting in scarring, but with otherwise remarkably good medical recovery.
