Plaintiff Justin Bryant was side swiped by the defendant concrete truck driver and underwent a lumbar fusion mere months after the incident, after seeking only minimal conservative treatment. However, Plaintiff managed to accrue over $300,000 in past medical bills and had a life care plan seeking over $1 million in future medical expenses. The concrete company and the driver were both sued for this low speed accident and had separate defense counsel. Zea R. McDonnough of HM&B represented the driver in trial and Charles McKeon was co-counsel for the company defendant. Together, the combined defense team mounted a strong defense of the causation and damages portions of Plaintiff’s claim after admitting negligence for the accident. The jury agreed with the defense theory that Plaintiff had a pre-existing degenerative condition that was not aggravated by the accident, but rather, he opportunistically jumped into surgery that was not related to the injury he complained of and was over billed for his treatment. Plaintiff sought over $1 million in trial, and after five hours of deliberating after a five day trial, the jury awarded past and future medical damages totaling $175,000, did not find permanency, and awarded no non-economic damages.
