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T Joseph Kane Crumley's Legal Cases (3)

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Personal injury

Moren ex. rel. Moren v. Jax Restaurant and Badger Mutual Insurance

Apr 12, 2005

OUTCOME: $1 million structure after $330,000 verdict

Plaintiff, a 2-½ year old boy, was taken to work by his mother, who owned a restaurant with her sister in Foley, Minnesota. Because of unexpected personnel shortages and day care problems, the mother b ... rought the child to the restaurant so she could help out. She brought the toddler into the restaurant kitchen with her and placed him on the floor to play, but he escaped the kitchen into the dining room. The mother retrieved him and brought him to a prep table next to a dough pressing machine where she was preparing pizza dough. While she was working, the toddler placed his hand into the machine and received a severe crush injury. See: Moren ex rel. Moren v. JAX Restaurant, 679 N.W.2d 165 (Minn.App. 2004), where the mother won dismissal from a contribution claim by the partnership. The child had crush injuries to three distal joints of his non-dominant left hand, with some disagreement of the extent of growth plate involvement. Both doctors testified that the child had excellent care and recovery, but agreed that the various scars and some of the orthopedic injuries were permanent, two surgeries would be required, and the hand could never be restored to perfect condition. Adverse Dr. Szalapski claimed that the cold sensitivity would lessen; treating doctor, Paul Schultz, a certified hand specialist and plastic surgeon, indicated it most likely would not, and might worsen, and that the disfigurement might worsen with age and growth. After the verdict, defendant agreed to purchase a structured settlement guaranteed to pay over $1 million over the child's lifetime.

Motorcycle accident

L.A. v State Farm

Sep 24, 2004

OUTCOME: $1.5 million settlement

The plaintiff was a 59-year-old semi-retired former tractor dealer who enjoyed riding motorcycles with his wife and friends. The defendant, a Twin Cities lawyer, pulled out from a stop sign in front of ... him, striking him. The plaintiff was thrown some distance through the air. The defendant, coincidentally a motorcycle aficionado, was driving a small car with a "Start Seeing Motorcycles" bumper sticker in the window. The plaintiff had several fractures, but at the scene of the accident it seemed as though his "half-helmet" had protected him from serious head injury. Unfortunately, he crashed on the helicopter and needed to be intubated. In the emergency room, he needed to be resuscitated and shocked several times. He spent the next few weeks in the intensive care unit with infections. He first gained consciousness about four weeks after the accident, and began rehabilitation shortly thereafter. The orthopedic injuries took up most of the attention in the first year after the accident. Although the plaintiff insisted that there was no mental detriment at the end of the hospital stay, the plaintiff's wife began seeing some problems about a year later. Relying on some fairly minimal testing that occurred at the end of the hospital stay, neuropsychologist Steve Morgan indicated that the pattern looked more like Alzheimer's than anything trauma related. The plaintiff's attorney, Joe Crumley, met with each of the treating doctors, looking for some explanation to the coma that had occurred in the hospital, and the "coincidental Alzheimer's" that had followed. Crumley told each of the doctors the history of the hospitalization. Dr. Charles Horowitz, a neurologist, was intrigued by the emergency room crises and resuscitations that had occurred, and did some research on that. He eventually opined that "although the etiology for [the plaintiff's] decline in cognitive function is not absolutely clear, it is certainly reasonable to consider that the hypoxic ischemic injury as well as traumatic brain injury sustained by [him] directly related to the accident of September 17, 2000, may be contributing to his cognitive decline presently." Certainly not the strongest opinion in the world, but better than coincidental Alheimer's. In September 2003, the matter settled for $1.5 million of the $2 million dollar policy limits, apparently the largest motorcycle injury settlement in Minnesota or Western Wisconsin. Interestingly, the medical bills totaled $380,000, for which the health insurer had paid $180,000, and demanded reimbursement. Crumley escrowed $135,000, and invited the health insurer to sue the plaintiff to prove double recovery. After a year, the health insurer relented and accepted $18,000, just 10 cents on the dollar.

Spinal cord injury

Helseth v. Contois and Allstate Insurance

Jan 02, 1997

OUTCOME: $15 million Hennepin County Arbitration Award, $5 million judgment

Shortly after midnight on August 22, 1995, an intoxicated Everett Contois raced his car on a straight stretch of road in Blaine, Minnesota, a Twin Cities suburb. Contois's car was traveling 111 mph whe ... n it passed a Blaine police officer, who began pursuit. A long and complex police chase resulted, with Contois running stop signs and stoplights at speeds of 80 mph, driving through lawns and retaining walls at least four Pursuit Intervention Tactics ("PIT") maneuvers.Eventually, he collided with a pickup truck driven by Timothy Helseth. The crash killed Helseth's passenger, seriously injured three juvenile passengers in Contois's car, and left Helseth a quadriplegic. Contois was tried and convicted of third degree murder and other offenses in state court.