Morgan & Morgan's Clancy Boylan delivers closing arguments at trial over a tractor-trailer crash that left a man with a range of injuries. Watch the trial.
Gainesville, FL— Jurors handed down a roughly $2 million verdict last week for the injuries a man suffered in a collision with a tractor-trailer, though that post-verdict award will be slashed, based on the jury’s apportionment of responsibility between the two drivers involved. Thomas v. C&S Wholesale Svcs., et al., 2024-CA-004343.
The 8th Circuit, Florida State Court jury handed down the award for the 2023 crash that left plaintiff Charles Thomas with multiple broken bones and a traumatic brain injury. However, the jury apportioned fault equally between Thomas and Gregory Streater, the tractor-trailer driver for defendant C&S Wholesale Services. That apportionment will reduce the post-verdict award to about $1 million.
Thomas’ car struck the big rig as Streater was making a U-turn to return to an exit he had missed on US Highway 301, in Alachua County, Florida. And the nine-day trial focused in large part on who was to blame for the collision.
Thomas argued that Streater was negligent in making the U-turn on a highway. During closing arguments last week, Morgan & Morgan’s Clancy Boylan, representing Thomas, reminded jurors of evidence he said showed that Streater’s U-turn violated multiple traffic laws. And he added Streater could have chosen other, safer options to return to the missed exit, rather than creating a dangerous condition in impeding highway traffic.
“And that’s what makes this decision so unreasonable,” Boylan said. “That’s what’s negligence is, folks: doing something that is unreasonable.”
But the defense argued Thomas caused the wreck by failing to brake in time to avoid the collision. During his closing, Hamilton Miller & Birthisel’s Jerry Hamilton walked jurors through evidence he said showed Thomas should have seen the tractor-trailer’s illuminated brake lights at least 8 seconds before the collision. But Hamilton said evidence showed Thomas did not take his foot off the gas pedal until one second before the collision.
“If you have time to see it, you have time to avoid it,” Hamilton said. “End of story.”
The jury’s verdict was reached after an unusual twist. Jurors initially awarded more than $1.3 million in damages for medical expenses, but declined to award any non-economic damages. After arguments by the attorneys on whether the verdict was inconsistent and how to remedy any possible inconsistency, 8th Circuit Court Judge Gloria Walker sent the jury back to deliberate on the issue of non-economic damages. Jurors ultimately returned with a $700,000 award on that issue.
CVN has reached out to attorneys for each side and will update this article with comments.
Email Arlin Crisco at acrisco@cvn.com.
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