Motorcycle Accident – $7,881,657.64 Jury Verdict

The case involved a motorcycle wreck in which our client was the motorcycle passenger. The driver of the motorcycle negligently drove his motorcycle causing them both to be ejected from the bike. A second motorcyclist behind them took evasive action to keep from running into them, and ended in a nearby canal.

Our client, a 58 year old medical receptionist and widowed mother of two adult daughters, suffered catastrophic injuries requiring 28 surgeries including the removal of one-third of her small intestines, her spleen and colon. She suffered a fractured pelvis, acute renal failure, broken left shoulder, and internal degloving injuries to her thighs. She spent three months in the hospital before being discharged to a nursing facility and subsequently to her home where she continued with therapy and medical care.

After the accident, the driver of the bike admitted to two fellow motorcyclists that he took the turn too sharply, lost control of the bike, and overcompensated with the front brake. Unfortunately, the driver died from unrelated causes prior to the lawsuit being filed and couldn’t testify at trial. With the driver gone, the defense decided to defend on the theory that the plaintiff’s injuries were not caused by falling off the motorcycle, but rather by being run over by the motorcycle following behind them. Not too coincidently, the driver of this motorcycle was one of the two witnesses who the deceased defendant driver had made his admission to. The defense accident reconstruction expert maintained the motorcycle couldn’t have been going more than 10-12 miles per hour because the driver of the motorcycle escaped the wreck relatively unscathed. The defense medical expert (DME) also testified that the fracture to our client’s pelvis and other injuries could only have been caused by blunt force trauma, and the only thing that could have caused such trauma was the motorcycle following closely behind.

Steven Farbman in a two week hotly contested trial successfully convinced the jury otherwise, as they found that the other motorcyclist did not contribute to his client’s injuries, but rather they were all due to the operator of the motorcycle she was on. A jury awarded our client $3,135,423.64 in past medical expenses, $2,000.00 in future medical expenses, $64,234.00 in past lost wages, $182,000.00 in future loss of income, and $2,500,000.00 in past and future pain and suffering.