Examples Of Two Pedestrian Deaht Claims Resulting In Recoveries Greater Than $1,000,000
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-12-22 22:09:58 | Word Count: 621
If historical data can help us forecast the future, a pedestrian will die from a motor vehicle accident about once every 111 minutes resulting in an estimated 4,500 total pedestrian deaths this year. Attorneys who regularly litigate motor vehicle accident claims that resulted in the death of a pedestrian should have the experience and the skill to understand the damages to the victim's family and need knowledge of insurance factors to be able to fully pursue different sources of recovery.
In one matter, while attempting to turn left a driver slammed into and killed a sixty two year-old male pedestrian crossing the streetwhile the walk signal was on. The pedestrian victim died from the resulting injuries. Liability was not disputed in this claim. The driver admitted he caused the accident. The issue concerned the amount that could be recovered. Yet as is so often the case in motor vehicle accidents with significant injuries to or the death of the victim, the driver only had fifteen thousand dollars in insurance coverage. In this lawsuit this amount was completely insufficient given that the victim died.
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The law firm that handled this lawsuit on behalf of the victim's family established that, while the driver had been operating his own car when the accident took place, the driver was on his way to a store to make a purchase for his employer. They were thus able to establish that the driver was acting within the course and scope of his employment at the time of the accident. Because of this, the employer liable as well. Therefore, the law firm was able to reach the employer's insurance policy and recovered an additional $1 Million. The law firm thus recovered at total of $1.015 Million for the victim's adult children.
In the other case, a pickup truck hit a ninety year old male pedestrian who was walking on a sidewalk. The pickup, which weighed a ton, was backing out of a construction site when it hit the pedestrian. The truck did not just strike the man, it actually ran over him, went forward and then ran over him again. The man died of his injuries. The man was survived by his adult children. They retained a law frim which pursued a lawsuit on their behalf. They named the driver, his employer, the developer of the construction site, and the contractor as defendants. The developer settled for $200,000. The contractor settled for $150,000. While the driver's employer did not deny liabity if the driver were liable, the employer argued that the driver was not liable because the real cause of the accident was the developer who did not have a lookout person at the scene of the accident as the driver was backing up. The law firm took the case to trial and the jury awarded the family an additional $1.3 Million.
The lesson from these claims is the importance of understanding the value of the damages and to completely check out all possible sources of recovery. An attorney litigating one of these cases must look to all potential defendants. This can include employers and anyone else who can be vicariously liable. Making use of this lesson, even if the potential defendant denies liability, could markedly increase the sum recovered for the family of a pedestrian killed in a motor vehicle accident.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting wrongful death matters. To learn more about pedestrian accident cases, fatal car crash and fatal car accident cases visit the websites
