Stanislaus County Jury Returns $6.68 Million Verdict After Company Truck Rear-Ends Passenger on I-5
A Stanislaus County jury awarded Kerry Bosch $6,678,026 after a company truck driven by an employee of Premiere Raspberries, LLC rear-ended her vehicle on northbound I-5 near Patterson, leaving her with a lumbar disc herniation that required spinal fusion surgery.
What happened
On November 21, 2016, Kerry Bosch was a passenger in a vehicle traveling northbound on Interstate 5 near Patterson, California. A driver working for Premiere Raspberries, LLC, doing business as Dutra Farms, struck her vehicle from behind in his company truck. The impact was severe enough to push her car into the vehicle ahead, creating a three-car chain-reaction crash.
Bosch was taken from the scene by ambulance to Emanuel Medical Center, complaining of back pain, hip pain, and pain throughout her body. Medical evaluation revealed a right-sided disc herniation at the L5-S1 level. While her neck and mid-back symptoms resolved within a couple of months, her low back did not improve. She underwent lumbar fusion surgery, and afterward continued to experience chronic pain from the surgical hardware. Her physicians also recommended a subsequent SI joint fusion.
Bosch filed suit against Premiere Raspberries and the driver, Rafael Gomez Quio, in Stanislaus County Superior Court. John Demas of Demas Law Group, P.C. served as lead trial attorney. The defense, backed by State Farm, offered $800,000 to settle. Bosch's side declined. When the case went to trial, the defense raised its offer to $1,850,000 on the eve of opening statements. That offer was also rejected.
The trial lasted approximately ten days. The jury heard from neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery experts, including Van Buren Lemons, M.D. and Ehsan Tabaraee, M.D., on the extent and permanence of Bosch's injuries. After three and a half hours of deliberation, jurors found no comparative fault on Bosch's part and returned a total verdict of $6,678,026. The breakdown included $313,904 in past medical expenses, $649,122 in future medical expenses, $940,000 for past pain and suffering, and $4,775,000 for future pain and suffering.
The verdict, issued April 27, 2022, is reported to be the largest non-death personal injury verdict in Stanislaus County's history and one of the largest in California for a single-level spinal fusion case. With interest and costs, the total recovery was projected to reach approximately $8,150,000.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.