On October 15, 2009, an employee of Harrison Poultry was driving a Harrison Poultry tractor-trailer on Georgia Highway 10 in Oglethorpe County. The tractor-trailer drove into the rear of a pick-up truc...k. The force of the collision threw both the pick-up truck and the tractor-trailer into the oncoming lanes of traffic. All three men in the pick-up were killed in the collision. The Georgia State Patrol found 4 of the 6 brakes on the tractor were out of adjustment and unsafe to be on the road. Less than two months after the lawsuit was filed, the Defendants settled.
Wrongful death
Bonita Arnold on behalf of Robert Arnold v. Lowndes County, Georgia
Jul 21, 2011
OUTCOME: Cash Settlement--Amount Confidential
Robert Arnold was fatally injured when a Lowndes County motor grader pulled into the path of his Freightliner logging truck. The collision caused the logging truck to catch fire. Mr. Arnold was trapped... in his truck. The people on the scene were unable to open the door on the truck and Mr. Arnold burned to death. The amount of the settlement is confidential at the Defendants' request.
Plaintiffs Lynn and Douglas Wheeler won their design defect and failure to warn claims against Ford Motor Company relating to the 2002 Ford Explorer. On Christmas morning 2005, 58 year old Lynn Wheeler... was on her way to church with her family. She was seated in the rear center seat of her son's 2002 Ford Explorer, wearing the lap-only seat belt Ford installed for that seating position. Two of Lynn Wheeler's grandchildren were in child seats on either side of her. As they entered a curve a 2-door Eagle Talon coupe driven by John C. Stanley crossed the centerline and struck the Explorer head-on.
In the crash, the latch on the Explorer rear bench seat broke and the seat collapsed and folded down and forward. The lap-only seat belt allowed Ms. Wheeler to jackknife over and strike her head on the back of the front seat. As a result, she suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury that left her quadriplegic.
Mr. Stanley admitted responsibility for the crash. Ford denied all responsibility. At trial, plaintiffs proved Ford knew, from Fords own crash tests and internal documents, that its rear center seats and restraint systems were failing and endangering passengers. Plaintiffs proved Ford planned to install a safer design including a three-point belt instead of a lap only belt -- in the 2002 Explorer but decided to delay that design to a later model year.
At the conclusion of trial, the jury awarded $17,716,401 to Lynn Wheeler and her husband. The jury separately found that Ford's conduct showed reckless disregard for safety and decided to award additional punitive damages against Ford. After a second phase of trial, while the jury was out deciding what amount of punitive damages to award, Ford settled the case. The amount of the settlement is confidential at Defendant's request.
