Alvarez v. Syar Industries

Feb 01, 2017

OUTCOME: On Wednesday, February 1, 2017 a Napa County jury returned a verdict in favor of our clients in the amount of $8,311,685 and $125,000. The verdict for Ms. Alvarez represented the largest personal injury verdict in the history of Napa County.

Roger A. Dreyer, Esq. and Noemi Esparza, Esq. represented Melissa Alvarez, a 35-year old mother of three and employee of Napa County’s Probation Department and her 5-year old son, Lorenzo Alvarez. The ... case involved a motor vehicle collision on April 17, 2015 where Ms. Alvarez was headed northbound on State Highway 221 in the number 2 lane with her then 3-year old son, Lorenzo, in his car seat located in the middle of the rear bench seat in her GMC Yukon. As she was traveling at 55 miles per hour, an employee of Syar Industries was driving a street sweeper cleaning up spilled gravel in the shoulder area along the right hand lane. Inexplicably, this individual made a left turn from the shoulder out into the lane which Ms. Alvarez was traveling. Her vehicle broadsided the street sweeper resulting in both vehicles catching fire. Both Ms. Alvarez and her son had to be rescued by passer-byers who stopped and despite the vehicle catching on fire, entered the Alvarez vehicle and extricated them both. The defense took the position that because Ms. Alvarez was on a hands-free telephone call that she was "distracted" and that she could have taken action to either avoid striking the street sweeper as it entered her lane or slow down such as the impact was not as significant. Accident reconstructionist, human factor experts and visibility experts had to be retained and deposed throughout the pre-trial preparation to counteract and demonstrate that the defense’s position was not only untenable, it was false. As a result of the efforts by Mr. Dreyer and Ms. Esparza, the defense ultimately admitted liability on the first day of trial and dropped all contentions that Ms. Alvarez had somehow played a role in the incident taking place. As a result of the collision, Ms. Alvarez sustained a right mid-shaft transverse femur fracture with lateral displacement, a right tibial plateau fracture, a right comminuted fibular fracture as well as a right bimalleolar ankle fracture. She also suffered multiple soft tissue injuries to her neck, chest and arms as well as displaced fractures in her left foot. Lorenzo was asleep at the time of the impact and was awoken to see his mother unable to physically take him out of his car seat or remove him from the vehicle. She had to be dragged on the hot asphalt from the vehicle and away from her son to get away from the burning vehicle. The witnesses during trial gave compelling testimony of Lorenzo’s ability to observe the circumstance and the car that he was in catching on fire. Ms. Alvarez was married and had three children and was employed by the county as a juvenile counselor. She had been employed for the past ten years and had demonstrated a tremendous capacity and ability in her position. The scope of her injuries were so severe and the multiple surgeries that she had undergone made it quite clear that she was not going to be able to maintain her employment with the county because of the physical demands of the job. Ms. Alvarez was looking at a lifetime of surgeries and rehabilitation just so she could do basic acts of daily living with her right leg. The medical testimony was compelling and the jury was not mislead by the defenses position through its hired physician. The jury took one day of deliberations to return its verdict. It awarded past and future economic damages in the amount of $2.5 million for medical expenses incurred, medical expenses required in the future and loss of income that Ms. Alvarez would suffer in the future. The jury also returned a non-economic loss for Ms. Alvarez for past and future of just under $6 million.