Ken Amos and William Gula (St. Petersburg, FL) (Auto Liability) obtained a Defense Verdict on November 21, 2019. This case involved a sideswipe collision where our Defendant was operating an 18,000 pound box truck and switched lanes into the path of the Plaintiff in the right lane of a three lane road. Liability was contested because at the Plaintiff’s deposition she testified that she was traveling 20 inches behind the box truck when she switched lanes at the same time the box truck switched lanes. Our client testified at trial that he never saw the Plaintiff until it was too late and that she flew by him so fast that it shook his box truck like a windstorm.
The Plaintiff had one prior accident in March 2012 and one subsequent accident two months after our accident tried before the jury. In her deposition, she denied being injured in the prior accident. She admitted in her deposition that the subsequent accident caused her pain to worsen.
At trial, the Plaintiff testified that she was mistaken with the 20 inches travel distance behind our client. She testified that the distance was more like the distance between the witness stand and the jury box. She also testified that she never told her doctors after the first accident that she had neck pain despite her records contradicting her testimony. She testified at trial that her deposition testimony was mistaken when she originally testified that the subsequent accident caused her pain to worsen. She denied at trial that she was injured in the subsequent accident.
It took the jury less than 40 minutes to deliberate and render a zero verdict.