Roper v. Jasper Jeep
Sep 06, 2010OUTCOME: Cobb County Jury Awards Grandmother $1.1 million
As with all good cases, it starts with a great client. Lance Cooper of <a href="http://thecooperfirm.net/contents/view/about_the_firm/12/attorneys.html">The Cooper Firm</a> in Marietta Georgia represe ... nted Ramona Roper, a 77 year old woman who was 74 at the time of the incident. She worked full-time as the City Clerk for the City of Jasper. She worked in this position for 30 years. She lived on her own and had a very active lifestyle before the incident. </p><br> The case involved a 1994 Dodge Intrepid. It had a defective gear shift assembly which caused it to move out of park when the keys were out of the ignition. Chrysler recalled the Intrepid in 2004. Ramona Roper took the car into Jasper Jeep to have the recall work done on three separate occasions between 2004 and 2007. The first two times the recall part was not in. The third time, the Jasper Jeep technician did not perform the recall work properly. </p><br> In November 2007, Ramona was dropping off some food for her grandchildren. Her three year old granddaughter reached into the center console of the car to pick up a drink and put her hand on the gear shifter causing it to shift out of park. Ramona's driver side door knocked her over and the car ran her over. She suffered a fractured pelvis. She was hospitalized for one week and was in a nursing home for approximately 6 weeks for recovery. </p><br> She returned to work after the incident, but had to retire at the end of 2008 because she was no longer physically able to do her job. </p><br> Given the severity of circumstances, Mr. Cooper filed suit against Jasper Jeep and Chrysler. Chrysler filed a Motion for Summary Judgment on the statute of repose which the Court granted. The Court also said it would permit Jasper Jeep to present evidence of Chrysler=s fault at trial. </p><br> Judge David Darden was the trial judge. He did an outstanding job. The case took 3 2 days to try. Mr. Cooper put up Plaintiff’s evidence in 1 2 days. He made the tactical decision not to ask the jury for an amount in opening statement. He presented evidence of approximately $60,000 in medical expenses and we argued that, even though she was 74 at the time of the incident, she would have worked for the foreseeable future and asked for about $100,000 in future lost wages. </p><br> At closing argument Mr. Cooper asked the jury to include $1.2 million in their verdict. Bill Claxton, attorney for Jasper Jeep asked the jury to return a defense verdict. The jury was out approximately three hours and came back with a $1.1 million verdict. They apportioned 94% of the fault to Jasper Jeep, 3% to my client and 3% to Chrysler. Therefore the total judgment will be $1,034,000.00. </p><br> Mr. Cooper interviewed the jurors after they were dismissed. One interesting note is that they were waiting for us to ask for a specific number and when we asked for $1.2 million they thought that was really reasonable. During voir dire he had talked about substantial damages for pain and suffering in the millions and their concerns about awarding that amount of money. They were concerned Mr. Cooper was going to ask for a much larger number. So, when he asked for Aonly@ $1.2 million, they didn=t have a problem getting to a number close to that. </p><br> Another interesting note is that Plaintiff’s best damage jurors were the middle-age men who had mothers who were my clients age or older. Mr. Cooper said, “They were very concerned about my client=s future and wanted to make sure that she was taken care of.”