CVN screenshot of attorney Nick Rowley detailing the plaintiff's spinal injuries
Los Angeles, CA - A California state court jury awarded $21.3 million on Monday to a woman who was rear-ended by a tractor trailer truck, and the full trial was recorded gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
The Los Angeles County jury returned their verdict in a trial that began on January 17. Plaintiff Leila Miyamoto sued food distribution company Services Group of America Inc. after one of their trucks slammed into her car in 2016. Her attorneys claim a distracted and overworked driver hit her while she was stopped and waiting to make a left turn, but the truck’s driver maintains she stopped suddenly in front of him.
The case saw two of the country’s most prominent civil trial attorneys go head-to-head over a truck crash that predated the prevalence of modern dash cams. Plaintiff attorney Nick Rowley of Trial Lawyers For Justice led the plaintiff team, and defense attorney Dana Fox of Lewis Brisbois represented Services Group of America.
Unlimited on-demand access, including all witness testimony and digital images of the exhibits and demonstratives shown at trial, is available with a monthly or annual subscription to CVN’s online trial video library. This trial is among the hundreds featuring many of the top plaintiff and defense civil trial attorneys practicing today and a wide range of practice areas and jurisdictions.
Rowley told CVN after the trial concluded that he rejected a weekend offer from defense counsel to settle the case for $9 million or to implement a high/low agreement of $5 million to $15 million. He projected that with interest the actual verdict amount surpasses $35 million.
The award is less than the $70 million+ Rowley said he would ask for in opening statements but still far surpasses his team’s settlement demands.
“We attempted to settle the case in the 7-figures pretty consistently and even gave the defense another chance on 4/3/23 to settle for $6.95 million,” he explained.
Attorneys for the defense did not respond to a request for comment.
The liability dispute largely hinged on whether or not Miyamoto was stopped and waiting to make a left turn when the truck collided with her. She maintains she was stopped in the course of normal traffic waiting to turn, but the defense argued she “inexplicably” slammed the breaks in front of the truck.
Rowley said in addition to the accident reconstruction element of the case that the complexity of Miyamoto’s injuries, particularly her concussion, presented a substantial challenge in winning over the jury.
“This case was not a slam dunk by any stretch,” he explained. “The ‘bad’ facts were that because of Leila’s psychiatric injury, PTSD, brain injury, and chronic pain, her experience and reporting of pain is out of proportion to what one would expect. The defense worked very hard to make her out to be an exaggerator.”
Rowley cited his team’s expertise working up cases involving traumatic brain injuries in overcoming a set of facts that at first glance could have supported the defense position. Miyamoto refused an ambulance after the collision, was walking around taking pictures at the scene, and she had a normal CT scan a week later.
“The appropriate TBI workup with advanced imaging ultimately provided the jury with an objective basis and explanation for what Leila and her family and friends had been experiencing for years,” Rowley said. “She is a different person.”
Rowley speculated that in the absence of a dash cam the defense took a particularly aggressive posture, especially with regards to their placing Miyamoto under private surveillance to supposedly show she was more independent than she claimed.
“The defense threw the entire defense playbook at us in this case,” Rowley said.
Miyamoto was also represented by Keith Bruno of Bruno | Nalu: Orange County Trial Lawyers.
The trial took place before Judge J. Stephen Czuleger.
The case is captioned Leila Miyamoto v. Services Group of America Inc, case number BC681937 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Email David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com
