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First day on the job, U-Haul worker ran motorcyclist off road

Amount:

$17,000,000

Type:

Verdict-Plaintiff

State:

Texas

Venue:

Brazos County

Court:

Brazos County District Court, 85th

Injury Type(s):

head; brain-brain
damage; brain-traumatic brain injury; brain-diffuse axonal brain injury; neurological-neurological impairment

Case Type:

Gross Negligence; Motor Vehicle – Truck, Motorcycle, Lane Change; Worker/Workplace Negligence – Negligent Training

Case Name:

Steven Summers, Jr. v. U-Haul Co. of Texas and Tuan Dinh Le,
No. 15-002178-CV-85

Date:

March 29, 2018

Parties

Plaintiff(s):

Steven Summers, Jr. (Male, 21 Years)

Plaintiff Attorney(s):

Darrin M. Walker;
Law Office of Darrin Walker;
Kingwood,
TX,
for
Steven Summers, Jr. ■ Jeff Paradowski;
Law Offices of W. Jeff Paradowski;
College Station,
TX,
for
Steven Summers, Jr.

Plaintiff Expert(s):

Erin Bigler; Ph.D.; Neuropsychology; Somerset,
CA called by:
Darrin M. Walker, Jeff Paradowski ■ David Thom; ; Motorcycle Helmets; El Segundo,
CA called by:
Darrin M. Walker, Jeff Paradowski ■ Calder Lively; ; Accident Reconstruction; College Station,
TX called by:
Darrin M. Walker, Jeff Paradowski ■ Roland Lee; M.D.; Neuroradiology; San Diego,
CA called by:
Darrin M. Walker, Jeff Paradowski

Defendant(s):

Tuan Dinh Le, 

U-Haul Company of Texas

Defense Attorney(s):

Banks Sewell;
Lightfoot, Franklin & White;
Birmingham,
AL,
for
U-Haul Company of Texas ■ Jerry L. Rios;
Lightfoot, Franklin & White;
Houston,
TX,
for
U-Haul Company of Texas ■ Jay Goss;
Bruchez, Goss, Thornton, Meronoff & Briers;
Bryan,
TX,
for
U-Haul Company of Texas ■ Richard Grafton;
Germer Beaman & Brown;
Austin,
TX,
for
Tuan Dinh Le ■ Lisa Hobbs;
Kuhn Hobbs PLLC;
Austin,
TX,
for
U-Haul Company of Texas ■ Angela Bongat;
Lightfoot, Franklin & White;
Houston,
TX,
for
U-Haul Company of Texas

Defendant Expert(s):

Raymond Martin;
Neurology;
Houston,
TX called by:
Banks Sewell, Jerry L. Rios, Jay Goss, Lisa Hobbs, Angela Bongat ■ William Dailey;
Neuropsychology;
Austin,
TX called by:
Banks Sewell, Jerry L. Rios, Jay Goss, Lisa Hobbs, Angela Bongat

Facts:

On Aug. 3, 2015, plaintiff Steven Summers, 21, a college student, was riding a motorcycle south in the left lane of State Highway 6 in College Station. Tuan Dinh Le, a customer service representative for U-Haul Co. of Texas, was going south in a 26-foot U-Haul box truck with a 12-foot trailer. Le allegedly came into Summers’ lane and forced him across the left shoulder and onto the grassy median. Summers, who wasn’t wearing a helmet, was thrown from the motorcycle and sustained a head injury. Another motorist caught up to Le and persuaded him to pull over. Police interviewed Le, who said he saw no motorcycle and didn’t know why he had been stopped. Summers sued Le for negligently running him off the road by failing to keep a proper lookout; failing to maintain a single lane; or changing lanes unsafely; and sued U-Haul for negligence and gross negligence in failing to train Le in operating the truck. Le was 20 years old, was on his first day of work with U-Haul and had never driven a large truck and trailer combination before. Summers nonsuited Le in October 2017. The case went to trial against U-Haul only. Summers claimed that the only U-Haul instruction Le received was to make wider turns than normal. Plaintiff’s counsel noted that rental customers receive extensive instructions and warnings before U-Haul gives them a truck. According to plaintiff’s counsel, the motorist who had caught up to Le after the accident testified that Le forced Summers off the road. On the date of the accident, Le’s supervisor had taken him and some other employees from Houston to College Station to pick up some trucks and trailers to take back to Houston. The drive was about 1.5 hours each way. Le acknowledged that he had lost his supervisor and co-workers at a light and panicked because he didn’t know the way back. After entering the highway, he changed lanes in an effort to spot the other U-Haul trucks that were somewhere ahead of him, he said. The defense denied that Le ran Summers off the road, or that any act or omission by Le proximately caused the accident. The defense argued that the plaintiff’s eyewitness didn’t see the accident. The witness had testified that he saw it in his mirrors, and the defense argued that a mirror view is less reliable than a direct view, such as other eyewitnesses had. Three motorists testified that they saw the motorcycle slowly drift off the roadway into the median, and that they did not see a U-Haul vehicle. Two of these witnesses were in oncoming vehicles, and the third was traveling four to six vehicles behind the motorcycle. The defense argued that the U-Haul was big enough that these eyewitnesses would have seen if Le truly had run Summers off the road. Four other people called 911, and none of those calls mentioned the U-Haul vehicle, the defense noted. The defense also denied that it was negligent to let Le operate the truck. The defense noted that state law allows any 18-year-old licensed driver to rent any size truck with no special training or experience. The defense argued that Le was qualified to drive the truck in question because he had a driver’s license, had no prior accidents or tickets, had driven large vehicles before and had driven U-Haul vehicles before. The defense denied that the only instruction he was given was to make wider turns. According to the defense, he was given the same instructions and warnings as a U-Haul customer.

Injury:

Summers was taken to the hospital by ambulance. He sustained a severe, diffuse axonal injury with brainstem shearing. At the scene, he exhibited decorticate and decerebrate posturing and eye divergence, all suggestive of a severe brain injury. A jaw-thrust maneuver was used to keep his tongue from blocking his airway. He was in the hospital for 10 days, including three days in intensive care. He was then transferred to a rehabilitation facility for 30 days. Summers, who lived with his parents, improved more quickly than expected. Within six months of the accident, he had re-enrolled at Sam Houston State University and was working part time. The school accommodated him with extra time to take tests and permission to record lectures, use a calculator and take tests at the student disability center. But in fall 2017, he dropped four of five classes. In high school, he had taken honors classes, had a grade point average of 4.7 and was Eagle Scout. He then went to Texas A&M University, but failed out after 1.5 semesters; he explained that it was his first time away from home and that the newfound independence was difficult to handle. After a year off, he enrolled at Sam Houston State, where his grades were OK until the accident. Six months after the accident, he underwent neuropsychological testing by a doctor to whom his primary care doctor had referred him. Three months later, his attorneys referred him to another neuropsychologist for another round of tests. The results were essentially identical and showed a processing speed in the 14th percentile (low average/borderline defective) and focus and attention in the 1st percentile (low average). Summers sought damages for past and future physical pain and mental anguish and past and future physical impairment. His paid or incurred medical bills were a little less than $200,000, but were not submitted to the jury. The defense argued that Summers was contributorily negligent for not wearing a helmet. He had ridden 45 minutes that day, from Madisonville to College Station. Summers testified that he had not ridden in three months, because his helmet had been stolen, but that he rode to College Station on the date of the accident to pick up his girlfriend. He had no memory of the date of the accident, but his girlfriend testified that they were going to buy matching helmets so that they could go riding the following weekend. Summers testified that he had bought a helmet in 2013, when he first bought a motorcycle, and that he had taken a motorcycle safety course a year earlier, in 2012. In addition, the plaintiff’s helmet expert testified that a helmet would not have prevented Summers’ injuries. The injuries resulted from rotational forces, against which a helmet does not protect. He noted that Summers landed on a soft, grassy surface and sustained no fractures.

Result:

The jury found U-Haul and Le negligent, but Summers not negligent. It didn’t find gross negligence. It awarded Summers $17 million.

Steven Summers, Jr.: $5,000,000 Personal Injury: Past Physical Impairment; $7,000,000 Personal Injury: Future Physical Impairment; $2,000,000 Personal Injury: past physical pain and mental anguish; $3,000,000 Personal Injury: future physical pain and mental anguish

Trial Information:

Judge:

Kyle Hawthorne

Demand:

$5,000,000

Offer:

None

Trial Length:

8
 days

Trial Deliberations:

4
 hours

Jury Vote:

12-0

Editor’s Comment:

This report is based on information that was provided by plaintiff’s and defense counsel.