Ken Amos and William Gula (St. Petersburg, FL) (Auto Liability) obtained a defense verdict in Pinellas County, in the defense of a GEICO insured.
The Plaintiff was represented by a Board Certified Trial Lawyer who has been trying cases in Florida for more than 39 years. The case involved a Plaintiff who was injured in two bicycle accidents within 12 days. Both accidents were brought in the same lawsuit because the Plaintiff argued that damages were impossible to be apportioned between the two accidents. The Plaintiff wanted the jury to award damages to both Defendants pursuant to the indivisible injury rule. Mr. Amos and Mr. Gula represented the driver of the first accident. The client was making a right on red at a busy intersection when the Plaintiff darted out in front of her vehicle on his bicycle. He was transported by EMS to Largo medical Center where he was complaining of back pain. He had a history of prior lumbar surgery to include a fusion at L4-5 fourteen months before the accident. He claimed that the accident caused the need for a second fusion at L3-4 and a refusion at L4-5, resulting in a double fusion in the L3-5 areas of the lumbar spine. The Plaintiff had incurred more than $200k in past medical bills, but chose to board the lien and out of pocket damages for the jury. The defense argued that his need for surgery was due to a long history of spinal stenosis because he had three prior back surgeries before the accidents.
With regard to liability for the first accident, the Defendant testified, and the witnesses testified, that the Defendant was first in line in a series of cars at an intersection exiting the 49th Street judicial center in Clearwater at 140th Avenue. The Defendant was making a right on red while looking at oncoming traffic to her left. She testified that she looked to the right when she approached the crosswalk, and then she inched into the crosswalk and began looking left because pedestrian traffic was clear to her right as far as she could see down 49th Street. Once traffic cleared to her left she took her foot off the brake and instantaneously she hit the Plaintiff after he came out of nowhere and darted in front of her vehicle. The Plaintiff was involved in a second accident 12 days later with similar facts 10 blocks north of the intersection for the first accident. Mr. Amos and Mr. Gula argued that the Plaintiff was never on 49th Street until he cut into the Defendant’s line of travel from an adjacent parking lot when he entered 49th Street to cross the intersection of 140th Avenue. The facts clearly showed that he was late for work and was traveling at a moderate speed for a bicyclist at the time of the impact.
After five days of trial, the Plaintiff asked the jury to award him $581k in damages. The jury returned a verdict for the first accident in the amount of $713.90, finding the Plaintiff 99% negligent and the Defendant 1% negligent. The net award to the Plaintiff will be $7.13 cents, but the Defendant may stipulate to $7.14 cents as a professional courtesy. The jury found zero liability for the co-defendant in the second accident. There is a PFS outstanding.