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Jury in Wrongful Death Trucking Accident Trial Rejects Request for $4 Million Verdict & Awards $80,000

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March 24, 2010

Burnham Brown partners Robert Bodzin & Derek Lim defended a national trucking company and achieved this result during a weeklong trial in Merced County. Plaintiffs were the 4 adult children of a woman who was killed in a 2005 trucking accident on I-5 near Los Banos, California. Decedent was a passenger in a truck, and was the wife of the truck driver. At trial, Burnham Brown represented the company that employed the truck driver. Through the post-accident investigation and discovery, it was confirmed that the accident was caused when the truck driver, in the course and scope of his employment, lost control of the truck and that decedent was not at fault for the accident. Liability for this accident was stipulated prior to trial.

One month prior to trial, Plaintiffs demanded $4.95 Million to settle the case. The only witness who testified at trial were the 4 plaintiffs, their stepfather who drove the truck, and decedent's sister, who lived with the decedent since 2003. Other than a series of pre-2001 photographs, Plaintiffs presented no documentary evidence of their contact with their mother other than cell telephone records which were subpoenaed by Defendants for 2 out of 4 of the plaintiffs. During trial, Plaintiffs tried, then abandoned their effort to introduce new telephone records that allegedly added several hundred telephone calls to prove their communication with their mother.

During closing arguments, Plaintiffs asked the jury to return a $4 Million verdict; $1 Million for each sibling. On December 11, 2008, after only an hour of deliberations, the jury returned a verdict of $80,000, which was divided up among all 4 plaintiffs. In post-verdict discussions with all counsel, several jurors mentioned the lack of independent witnesses, documentary evidence and many years that plaintiffs respectively spent apart from their mother as factors. Several jurors were complimentary of the Burnham Brown team's closing arguments, and the graphics and visual presentation used.

Robert Bodzin is a partner at Burnham Brown who has been trying complex commercial and catastrophic injury cases in NY & California for almost 20 years. Mr. Bodzin is one of the chairs of Burnham Brown's Business & Commercial Law Practice Group and is the immediate past chair of the California State Bar Litigation Section.  Mr. Bodzin can be reached at 510-835-6833 & rbodzin@burnhambrown.com

March 24, 2010

Burnham Brown partners Robert Bodzin & Derek Lim defended a national trucking company and achieved this result during a weeklong trial in Merced County. Plaintiffs were the 4 adult children of a woman who was killed in a 2005 trucking accident on I-5 near Los Banos, California. Decedent was a passenger in a truck, and was the wife of the truck driver. At trial, Burnham Brown represented the company that employed the truck driver. Through the post-accident investigation and discovery, it was confirmed that the accident was caused when the truck driver, in the course and scope of his employment, lost control of the truck and that decedent was not at fault for the accident. Liability for this accident was stipulated prior to trial.

One month prior to trial, Plaintiffs demanded $4.95 Million to settle the case. The only witness who testified at trial were the 4 plaintiffs, their stepfather who drove the truck, and decedent's sister, who lived with the decedent since 2003. Other than a series of pre-2001 photographs, Plaintiffs presented no documentary evidence of their contact with their mother other than cell telephone records which were subpoenaed by Defendants for 2 out of 4 of the plaintiffs. During trial, Plaintiffs tried, then abandoned their effort to introduce new telephone records that allegedly added several hundred telephone calls to prove their communication with their mother.

During closing arguments, Plaintiffs asked the jury to return a $4 Million verdict; $1 Million for each sibling. On December 11, 2008, after only an hour of deliberations, the jury returned a verdict of $80,000, which was divided up among all 4 plaintiffs. In post-verdict discussions with all counsel, several jurors mentioned the lack of independent witnesses, documentary evidence and many years that plaintiffs respectively spent apart from their mother as factors. Several jurors were complimentary of the Burnham Brown team's closing arguments, and the graphics and visual presentation used.

Robert Bodzin is a partner at Burnham Brown who has been trying complex commercial and catastrophic injury cases in NY & California for almost 20 years. Mr. Bodzin is one of the chairs of Burnham Brown's Business & Commercial Law Practice Group and is the immediate past chair of the California State Bar Litigation Section.  Mr. Bodzin can be reached at 510-835-6833 & rbodzin@burnhambrown.com