Articles Posted in Auto Accidents

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When deciding a trial case, a jury has a duty to be consistent in its verdict, i.e., it can’t say one thing, but then enter a contrary verdict. If a jury contradicts itself, generally one party has cause to overturn or vacate that verdict. This is what happened in the Illinois personal injury lawsuit of Gerald English v. Anthony Daniel McLaughlin, 10 L 677 (DuPage County). A judge ruled to vacate the verdict in favor of the defendant after the jury entered inconsistent statements.

The facts of English v. McLaughlin involved a 2007 Glendale Heights bicycle accident. The plaintiff, Gerald English, was biking southbound on Glen Ellyn Road and crossing Armitage Avenue. At the Illinois personal injury trial, English testified that he entered the intersection on a green light and that the light turned yellow as he was biking through. English estimated that he was biking around 17 mph at the time and was therefore unable to stop when the defendant, Anthony McLaughlin, turned left in front of him.

English’s bike ended up striking the rear-end of McLaughlin’s car and resulted in multiple bone fractures. English fractured his right knee, left shoulder, and right finger. And while none of his fractures required surgery, his injuries did prevent English from performing his normal engineering duties for about two months following the Illinois bicycle accident.

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The Illinois Appellate Court reviewed the personal injury lawsuit of Anderson v. Anderson, 2011 Ill.App. (1st) 10034 (Sept. 30, 2011), to determine whether or not the trial judge had correctly ordered a new trial. After reviewing the case facts and the jury’s decision, the appellate court disagreed with the trial judge and reversed his order for a new trial. As a result, the not guilty verdict entered against the two defendants in Anderson stands.

Anderson arose out of a two-vehicle collision between a mini-van driven by defendant Sean Anderson and a vehicle driven by defendant Frank Fratto. The personal injury claim was filed by the six passengers in Anderson’s van at the time of the car accident and was brought against both of the drivers involved in the intersection accident. The personal injury claim alleged that both Anderson and Fratto were at fault for the auto crash and therefore were both responsible for the plaintiffs’ injuries.

However, the Illinois jury found in favor of both defendants and failed to find either at fault for the intersection accident. Rather than letting this verdict stand, the trial judge ruled that the verdict was invalid and granted a new trial. When defending his ruling, the judge stated that “the jury’s finding that neither was negligent given the facts of this case is unreasonable and against the manifest weight of the evidence. The jury had the discretion of apportioning the fault between the two parties, but a wash of liability is not an option when the injured is not an active participant in the cause of the incident.”

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When a civil lawsuit is subject to an appeal, there are typically two outcomes: either the court finds that the trial proceedings were just and legal, thereby putting an end to the case; or the court finds that errors were made at the trial court level and remands the case for a retrial. In the personal injury lawsuit of Michael Petraski, etc. v. Deborah Thedos, etc, et al., 2011 IL App. (1st) 103218

, the Illinois Appellate Court reviewed the case’s trial proceedings a second time. In its most recent review, the court ordered yet another trial for the 2001 intersection accident lawsuit.

Petraski arose out of a 2001 Memorial Day crash involving the plaintiff, Margaret Petraski, and the defendant, Sheriff Officer Deborah Thedos. At the time of the intersection accident, Thedos was responding to a domestic dispute. In order to do so in a speedy fashion, Thedos ran a red light and crashed into Petraski’s vehicle. The impact killed a passenger in Petraski’s car and left Petraski an incomplete quadriplegic.

Following the first Illinois trial, the jury entered a $26.8 million verdict against Thedos and the Cook County Sheriff’s Department. However, the defendants appealed this decision, arguing that the trial judge improperly excluded evidence of Petraski’s alcohol consumption during the hours leading up to the car crash. Therefore, a second trial was initiated which allowed this persuasive evidence. At the conclusion of the second trial, the jury now returned a not guilty verdict in favor of the defendants.

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In a large metropolitan area like Chicago it is not unheard of for a jury to return a $10 million or more personal injury verdict. Because large cities have large populations, the chances are greater that severe injuries will occur among that large population. However, in smaller districts, such as that of Warren County in downstate Illinois, the likelihood of a severe injury occurring are less. Therefore, a personal injury lawsuit like that of Warren County verdict, that results in a $2.5 million settlement can become the highest settlement ever reported in that county.

The facts surrounding the case arose out of a hit and run accident involving the plaintiff bicyclist and the defendant driver. The plaintiff was riding his bicycle on 180th Avenue near 90th Street in Monmouth, Illinois, a city located about 175 miles from Chicago. It was broad daylight and by all reports the conditions were clear. At the same time, the defendant was driving his parents’ Ford F-150 pickup truck.

The defendant hit the plaintiff from behind, causing fairly severe injuries. However, instead of helping the cyclist, the defendant driver left the scene of the accident. It was later revealed that at the time of the Illinois bicycle accident the defendant was driving on a suspended license. In addition, over the ten years prior he had received over 40 moving violations.

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The plaintiff in a Lake County car accident lawsuit was awarded a $60,283 verdict for her injuries and lost time from work. The plaintiff in Pamela Paolinetti v. Demitry Yakovleva, 09 L 667 (Lake County), failed to complete all of the recommended medical treatments and was still experiencing pain. Consequently, the defendant challenged the nature and extent of the plaintiff’s injuries following the Illinois car accident.

The plaintiff, Pamela Paolinetti, had been rear-ended by defendant Demitry Yakovleva. Both Paolinetti and Yakovleva’s vehicles suffered significant damage, with both cars needing to be towed from the scene. Paolinetti’s injuries required her to be taken by ambulance to the nearest emergency room.

Upon arrival at the Lake County ER, Paolinetti was treated for neck and back pain. Further testing determined that the car accident had aggravated her pre-existing arthritis. Paolinetti’s doctors referred her for physical therapy; however, when her symptoms continued they then recommended cortisone injections. Cortisone is a steroid that is typically prescribed to relieve joint or muscle pain. However, while cortisone injections can relieve pain, they also carry the risk of multiple side effects, including joint infection, nerve damage, and osteoporosis.

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Back in November Volkswagen began notifying its customers that it would be voluntarily recalling numerous of its diesel models for faulty fuel injectors. The car manufacturer estimates that this recall could affect more than 168,000 vehicles. While Volkswagen’s website has more information on the specific models the Volkswagen recall effects, they include:

• Volkswagen Golf models manufactured between 2010 and 2011,
• Volkswagen Jetta models manufactured between 2009 and 2012, and
• some Audi 3 models manufactured between 2010 and 2012.

Of the above models, only those vehicles containing the 2.0L TDI® Clean Diesel engine are included in the recall. According to Volkswagen, there is a possibility that certain vibrations will cause a fuel line crack in the engine, which could then cause a fuel leak. While the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) warns that fuel leaks could lead to car fires, Volkswagen stated that it is not aware of any accidents or injuries caused by fuel line cracks in its diesel engines.

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An Illinois truck accident case was reviewed by the Illinois Appellate Court to determine whether or not the trial court had erred in its delivery of jury instructions and whether the jury had awarded too much damages. However, after reviewing the case facts, the appellate court upheld the trial court proceedings and eventual verdict in Andrzej Chraca v. Steven Miles, 2011 Ill.App. (1st) 100537-U.

The Chraca lawsuit involved a 2004 car crash between Andrzej Chraca and Steven Miles. Chraca was driving an SUV at the time, while Miles was driving an Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) truck. Both Chraca and Miles suffered degrees of paralysis following the Schaumburg truck accident and both drivers filed personal injury lawsuits against each other.

The two cases were consolidated into one personal injury lawsuit by the Circuit Court of Cook County. At the end of the trial, the court ruled in favor of Chraca and against Miles. Chraca was awarded $23.8 million in damages, which was broken down as follows:

-$500,000 for disfigurement;
-$593,335 for past medical expenses;
-$3.5 million for future medical expenses;
-$2.5 million for past and future pain and suffering; and
-$18 million for past and future loss of a normal life.

And while both lawsuits were consolidated for the purposes of the Cook County personal injury trial, the appeal deals only with the lawsuit filed by Chraca.

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The Illinois Appellate Court recently affirmed a trial court’s exclusion of photographs during a Cook County trial. The issue in Sylvester Scales v. Joseph Benne, No. 1-10-2253 (2011), was whether or not the photographs were barred from evidence because the plaintiff’s attorney had not produced them to opposing counsel prior to the start of the trial.

The personal injury lawsuit involved a pedestrian accident in which the parties were disputing whether the defendant’s car had struck the plaintiff, or whether the plaintiff had walked into the defendant’s car. At the time of the car accident, Joseph Benne’s car was in the left-turn lane at the intersection of North and Clybourn Avenues and Sylvester Scales was walking in the same area. At trial, Benne testified that he heard a “thud” on the side of his car; the assumption being that this noise represented the impact with Scales.

Benne also testified that the the turn-lane at the North and Clybourn intersection was long enough to accommodate six cars and that at the time of the car accident his vehicle was fourth or fifth in line. This testimony is significant because vehicles only owe pedestrians a duty if they are within the crosswalk. So if the defense can show that the pedestrian accident occurred four or five car lengths southeast of the crosswalk, then it can show that the defendant driver did not owe a duty to the pedestrian.

In order to refute this testimony, Scales’s attorneys intended to use two photographs of the intersection taken from GoogleMaps and MapQuest and a photograph depicting the make and model of Benne’s car taken from Autotrader.com. However, Benne’s attorney moved to have the photographs excluded on the grounds that Scales’s attorney had not produced them until that point. The judge granted the defendant’s request and the plaintiff was unable to use the three photographs. The Cook County jury went on to enter a verdict in favor of Benne; Scales’s attorney appealed this verdict based on argument that the outcome would have been different if the court had allowed the use of the three photographs at trial.

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A McHenry County jury returned the second highest personal injury verdict in the county’s history when it entered a $897,000 verdict in the case of David Fuller v. Richmond Burton High School, District 157, et al., 07 L 317 (McHenry County). The case involved a 2007 intersection accident that occurred between the plaintiff, David Fuller, and the defendant school bus driver, Rhonda Fiumetto.

The accident occurred at the intersection of Route 173 and Lakeview Road in Richmond Township. At the time of the bus accident, Fuller was attempting to make a left-hand turn onto Lakeview Road when Fiumetto’s bus drove into Fuller’s car. Fuller’s car had been stopped at the time of impact, but the bus was going in excess of 45 mph. The force of the impact caused Fuller’s car to be pushed into oncoming traffic, at which point he was hit head-on by a minivan.

While Fuller suffered some superficial face wounds and cuts, the main outcome of the intersection accident was a compression fracture of the L2 vertebrae in Fuller’s upper spine. Within twenty-four hours of the bus accident, Fuller underwent extensive surgery to try to repair his spinal fracture. Since that time, Fuller has undergone an additional two spinal fusion surgeries. In his personal injury complaint, Fuller contended that he is permanently disabled and has lost his prior employment as a sheet metal worker.

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As the holiday season approaches, drivers need to be even more aware of their surroundings. This added caution is necessary not only because of worsening road conditions as winter weather sets in, but also because of increasing traffic and distracted drivers. Whether hurrying to the mall to partake in Black Friday deals, or to grandma’s to partake in some pumpkin pie, drivers can be preoccupied during the holiday season. Therefore, it is increasingly important to be on the lookout and drive cautiously during the holidays in order to avoid car accidents.

The personal injury case of Alan L. Valdez v. Kevin Claes and Ricky Heidner, No. 09 L 63023, demonstrates what can happen when one or both drivers is not paying attention. The 2007 car accident occurred at the T-intersection of Bonded Parkway and Brandy Parkway in Streamwood, Illinois. The plaintiff, Alan Valdez, was driving south on Bonded Parkway and was then heading left onto Brandy Parkway. At the same time, defendant Kevin Claes was driving westbound on Brandy Parkway when his vehicle struck the driver side door of Valdez’s car.

As a result of the car crash, Valdez suffered a strain across his cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine areas. In addition, he sustained a bulging disc in his lower back, which ended up progressing to a herniated disc just two months after the intersection accident.

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