Recent Verdicts

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Toliver v. City of Clarksdale
Despite an initial police report claiming that our client was responsible for the injuries he sustained in an automobile collision, we were able to show that he was not at fault. The accident occurred when our client, Toliver, was driving through an intersection with a highway that was under construction. He was hit by an oncoming police car and suffered permanently disabling brain damage. The police report indicated that Toliver had run a stop sign, but our thorough investigation revealed that this was not the case. The stop sign, in fact, had been down at the time of the accident. The police report had been falsified to protect the officer who hit our client. We settled with the subcontractor and city ahead of time and received a jury award of $20 million from the police officer and general contractor. The judge asked the general contractor to pay $10 million, because of the officer's inability to pay.

Marlow v. Moore
We demonstrated that our client suffered a severe birth injury as a result of the obstetrician's negligence. The night before the infant was born, the mother's contractions slowed but she was left untreated by the obstetrician and his nursing staff. During delivery, the doctor's inappropriate use of forceps left the child with arm and shoulder injuries. When the baby was born, the obstetrician refused to let the neonatal nurse intubate the child as was necessary, trying instead to do it himself. After repeated failures, he allowed the nurse to correctly perform the procedure. We were able to show that the negligence of the physician and his staff was a direct cause of our client's permanent brain injuries. The defendants (the obstetrician and his hospital) settled for a combined $1,900,000.

Gibbs v. Kings Daughter Hospital
Our 18-year-old client suffered paralysis and bowel and bladder dysfunction after emergency room staff failed to diagnose her arterial venous malformation. Gibbs first went to King's Daughters Hospital emergency room with intense lower back pain. She was subsequently released. The next evening, she went to Delta Regional Medical Center, but they sent her back to King's Daughters, where she was again released. The next night, Gibbs had numbness in her legs. Her physician at King's Daughter examined her and released her. By the next morning, Gibbs was paralyzed from the waist down. An ambulance brought her to Delta Regional, where a neurologist finally diagnosed her paralysis and ordered a myelogram. Because he did not order the myelogram "stat," however, her surgery was not performed for 12 hours. By then, permanent damage had occurred. The neurologist and Delta Regional settled for a confidential amount. A jury verdict against King's Daughters and the emergency room physician awarded Gibbs $2 million.

Heath v. State Industries, Inc.
Three-year-old Kendra Heath accidentally knocked over a gasoline container in her home's storage room, and the pilot light in her family's water heater caught fire. She suffered burns over 60% of her body and required extensive medical treatment, including multiple surgeries. The manufacturer of the water heater, State Industries, Inc., did not include adequate warnings about the dangers associated with gas-operated water heaters. We argued that the company was responsible for warning consumers not to place the water heater near flammable products such as gasoline and to keep it at least one and a half feet above the ground. Our clients were awarded $1.7 million dollars by the jury to which the judge added $290,000 to cover Kendra's medical expenses.

Chism v. Tubertini Construction Co.
Our clients sued on behalf of 17-year-old Chism, who died due to severe burns he received after putting his gas lawn mower in the storage room where his gas water heater was located. We demonstrated fault on behalf of the water heater's manufacturer, State Industries, which failed to provide sufficient warning labels and safety instructions, the home owner, who installed the water heater in a location likely to contain gasoline and flammable liquids, and the builder and plumber, who did not take necessary safety precautions by placing the water heater directly on the floor in a room where gasoline was likely to be stored. The defendants settled for a combined $525,000.

Prestage v. Sperry-New Holland
Our client, a 21-year-old farmer, was working on his 1969 Ford New Holland combine when an accident cost him his leg. He was using the machine to harvest and thresh wheat. In this type of combine, after the wheat is collected, the machine separates the heads from the straw and deposits the heads in a holding tank. The separation is facilitated by two rotating augers, a leveling auger and a discharge auger. They help to move the grain through the machine. At the time of the accident, the discharge auger was clogged, and our client was trying to reach a stick to fix it. As he leaned forward, however, his shirt was caught on the bolt of the leveling auger, and he was pulled down into the tank. His foot slipped beneath the discharge auger's shield and was severely injured. He had to have his leg amputated below the knee. We argued that the combine's protruding bolt was defective, the shields insufficient, and the manufacturer's manual deficient in explaining how to safely fix discharge auger clogs. Although Prestage was found to be partly at fault, the jury found the manufacturer strictly liable. Our client was awarded $1.4 million, and his wife was awarded $212,250.