CVN screenshot of plaintiff attorney Paul Painter delivering his opening statement
Los Angeles, CA - A California state court jury heard opening statements Monday in a lawsuit alleging two young women sustained traumatic brain injuries after their family's van was rear-ended by an 18-wheeler truck, and the full trial is being webcast gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
Plaintiffs Asia and Sarah Morgan sued trucking company FBM Group Corporation and driver Leilei Chen in 2019, two years after a collision on a New Mexico highway in 2017 that supposedly left them with debilitating neurological injuries. They accuse Chen of becoming distracted after dropping a water bottle, but the defense alleges the Morgan’s vehicle was traveling too slowly, and that the severity of their alleged injuries is exaggerated.
Subscribers to CVN’s online trial video library get unlimited live and on-demand access to the proceedings along with hundreds more trials (including another in progress in Los Angeles County) featuring many of the top plaintiff and defense attorneys in California and throughout the United States.
Attorney Paul Painter of Savannah, Georgia-based Bowen Painter LLC told the jury during his opening statement that Asia and Summer were riding in their family van’s middle seats when Chen rear-ended them in 2017 - a time when dash cameras on commercial vehicles were not nearly as prevalent as today.
He claimed the impact caused both seat backs to fail and that both Asia and Summer fell backwards. While they were initially given a clean bill of health in a local hospital’s emergency department, Painter explained how months later Sarah began struggling with school work and having balance problems, while Asia developed incontinence and other neurological sensitivity issues.
Painter told jurors both sides agreed there was a roughly 20-mile-per-hour speed differential between the vehicles at the time of impact, but Painter maintained that was due to Chen’s excessive speed while the defense blamed it on the Morgans' father driving too slowly.
He told jurors the testimony from fact witnesses and accident reconstruction experts would show the crash was caused entirely by Chen’s distraction after dropping his water bottle, and while he didn’t ask for a specific amount of damages he explained that both Asia and Summer faced a lifetime of challenges from their brain injuries despite being relatively young otherwise healthy women.
Representing the defense, attorney Kere Tickner of Irving-based McGlinchey Stafford PLC flatly rejected the claim the seat backs in the Morgans’ van failed, telling jurors that claim was contradicted by multiple eyewitnesses.
CVN screenshot of defense attorney Kere Tickner delivering her opening statement
She agreed on the 20-mile-per-hour speed difference and that Chen dropped his water bottle, but she insisted the speed difference was due to the van traveling too slowly, noting the truck allegedly had a device installed that prohibited it from traveling at excessive speeds.
Tickner also took issue with the two years between the accident and the filing of the lawsuit, telling jurors both Asia and Summer underwent thorough examinations in the emergency room after the accident and suggesting any issues they later developed could have been caused by numerous treatments from a local chiropractor.
The trial is taking place before Judge J. Stephen Czulger, and CVN’s gavel-to-gavel coverage will continue for the duration of the proceedings.
The case is captioned Pope-Morgan, et al. v. Chen, et al, case number 19STCV16639 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
E-mail David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com