CVN screenshot of plaintiff attorney Jon Marko delivering his closing argument
Pontiac, MI - A Michigan state court jury has returned a roughy $32.7 million verdict in a third consecutive trial resulting from an accident involving a prototype car that crashed into onlookers at a test track, and the full trial along with the two previous proceedings were recorded gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
The latest verdict, reached on September 11, brings the total damages resulting from the 2023 accident to nearly $1 billion, despite defendant Continental Automotive Systems Inc. refusing to make any kind of settlement offer at any point in the litigation, according to plaintiffs attorney Jon Marko of Marko Law PLLC.
Continental admitted liability in each of the three trials, however the parties spent more than full summer in Judge David Cohen’s courtroom battling over appropriate damages for plaintiff Vincent Gibson and two children injured in the crash, a decision Marko told CVN after the latest trial he considered “absolute insanity.”
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The underlying crash occurred in 2023 during an excursion for participants of a STEM summer camp for gifted students. Part of the demonstration involved a Mustang Dark Horse, a prototype sports car on loan from Ford, which plaintiffs accuse organizers of having intentionally spin out of control to wow onlookers. The driver failed to regain control of the car and it slammed into a group of people standing trackside.
The first trial went to verdict in late July, with jurors awarding $896,467,970 to one of Gibson’s minor children who suffered a catastrophic brain injury in the collision. A second trial involving Gibson’s bystander claim ended with a $2,066,000 in early August, and the latest $32.7 million verdict came in for a third child injured at the test track.
The July and August verdicts are believed to be the largest personal injury and bystander verdicts in Michigan history, respectively.
Marko stated after the trial he attributed the lack of settlement offers to poor communication between Continental’s trial team and their insurers.
“My take is that the Defendant Continental and/or its primary level carrier (Allianz) failed to provide notice to the other insurance companies in the tower and now the upper coverage levels are denying the claim,” Marko told CVN. “Interestingly, the assistant general counsel for Continental who handled this case is no longer with the company.”
Marko said he had so much confidence in the cases being resolved once the liability stipulation came in that he pledged to spend more vacation time with his family over the summer and made plans to visit legendary trial attorney Gerry Spence’s ranch and speak at the Washington Trial Lawyers program.
“I told my family and colleagues that there was no way these trials would ever go; no one would be so stupid as to try one of these cases, let alone all three,” Marko reminisced. ”Yet that's exactly what happened.”
Marko revealed that his firm bankrolled roughly $500,000 in case costs after getting the case referred to them by a local Michigan attorney, but he said watching cell phone video of the crash immediately convinced him he had a claim that could go the distance.
“As soon as I watched the cell phone video of the crash, I knew what we had from the beginning and the potential for this case and we were willing to go to any lengths to see it through,” he said.
Marko also disclosed how he managed and deployed his team over weeks of sustained, intense trial work. He described how his firm maintained a primary war room at their main office in Detroit, but that the courthouse being over an hour away forced him to essentially set up a satellite office in the courtroom.
“We kind of took over the courtroom itself so we could work in there,” he explained. “The clerks opened it early and defense counsel stayed in a room on a different floor of the courthouse. After court each day we went to a local restaurant/bar to get food, beer, debrief, and prepare for the next day.”
Fatigue can be a major factor for trial teams working in this environment, and Marko said he learned long ago that eating a big lunch in trial makes you tired and low-energy afterwards.
“We had boxes of water, cold brew coffee, and snacks (healthy nuts, energy bars, etc) stocked in the courtroom that was being refilled by my awesome team at all times,” Marko remarked proudly.
Besides the impact on the plaintiffs families and the record-setting verdicts, Marko said the case could have broader implications after the judge sanctioned the Continental $1 million dollars for lying about insurance limits
“Defendants hiding insurance has been all too common here in Michigan and across the country,” Marko explained. “ After the Judge's order was entered, I had several other cases where defense suddenly ‘found’ more insurance policies. Defendants are on notice to beware of hiding coverage. I had another case where the defense attorney withdrew after his client his coverage documents. They are done messing around.”
The plaintiffs were also represented by John Eads of Marko Law and by Scott Goodwin of Scott Goodwin Law.
Continental was represented by Clyde & Co. and Gordon & Rees.
The most recent case is captioned Walker v. Continental Automotive Systems Inc., Case No. 2024-209675-NO, in Oakland County Circuit Court.
Email David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com
