The Plaintiff, an independent dump truck operator, asked a Miami-Dade County jury to award him $3,000,000 in damages, claiming he was severely injured when he jumped out of the cab of his dump truck. The alleged injuries occurred when the loader that was loading sod onto the Plaintiff’s truck malfunctioned and the Plaintiff jumped out of the cab fearing for his life. The insured owned and maintained the loader. The thrust of the plaintiff’s claim was that the insured was negligent in maintaining the loader. The lack of any maintenance records from the insured was overcome by the testimony of employees and the insured’s CEO that the loader was well-kept and that all types of industrial machinery is prone to breaking down. The plaintiff had undergone two surgical procedures performed on the same day by Dr. Rousch. Dr. Rousch testified he performed a cervical disc replacement and a lumbar laminectomy as a result of the Plaintiff’s claimed injuries and that the Plaintiff would need in excess of $500,000 for future care. On the defense, we knew it would be difficult to overcome the Plaintiff’s contention that the malfunctioning loader would not have caused a reasonable person to jump in like circumstances. We took the approach of viewing the evidence as though the plaintiff did jump out even though the defense had testimonial evidence from the loader’s operator and the insured’s CFO that they did not see the Plaintiff in the cab of his truck when the loader malfunctioned. The tactic worked to earn the defense the credibility needed to tear apart the causation aspects of the Plaintiff’s case. After deliberating for just over 2 hours, the jury returned a verdict of $71,666.00. HM&B trial paralegal, Maria Chavarria, Associate, Daniel Batista and Partner, Carlos M. Llorente represented the insured and tried the case.
