$60 Million Verdict for TBI Victim of Velocity Express Van Collision

Shortly after 7 a.m. on August 28, 2000, Brian Hugen was driving north on State Route 32 in Suffolk, Virginia, when a white delivery van operated by an employee of Velocity Express Mid-Atlantic drifted out of its lane. The van sideswiped a car traveling ahead of Hugen, then struck his vehicle head-on. The posted speed limit was 55 miles per hour.

Hugen spent 62 days in a coma. He emerged with a thoracic compression fracture, a broken femur, fractured hip and ankles, two collapsed lungs, and severe traumatic brain injury. The brain damage caused cognitive impairment, memory loss, and depression. Abnormal bone growth fused several of his joints, a condition called heterotopic ossification. His weight climbed from 175 to 282 pounds as a direct consequence of the neurological injuries.

Jeffrey A. Breit of Breit, Drescher and Imprevento led the trial team representing Hugen. The defense, handled by attorneys from Hunton and Williams and McGuireWoods, argued that its driver faced a sudden emergency when the vehicle ahead of the van braked unexpectedly. The Suffolk Circuit Court rejected that theory, and the jury agreed: it returned a verdict of $60,000,000, which at the time was reported as the largest damages award in Virginia history.

Velocity Express appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court. The court, in a September 12, 2003 opinion, upheld the finding of liability entirely. The company's driver had drifted into oncoming traffic without any sudden emergency; the jury's negligence finding was sound. The court, however, reversed the damages award and ordered a new trial on damages alone. It found that plaintiff's counsel had crossed the line during closing argument by urging jurors to place themselves in Hugen's position and by referencing the wealth of Howard Hughes and Bill Gates in connection with the care Hugen deserved. The court held that those remarks constituted improper appeals to economic considerations outside the evidence.

Liability was never in doubt after the Supreme Court's ruling. The case returned to the circuit court for a new damages trial. The underlying facts of the collision and the severity of Hugen's injuries, confirmed in the appellate record, remained unchanged.