Run Over Beside His Stalled Car: A $3 Million Settlement

In the summer of 2013, an elderly North Carolina man was traveling through West Virginia when his car broke down. He pulled onto the shoulder, stepped out, and stood next to the stopped vehicle while he waited for help. He was off the travel lanes, in the place a stranded driver is supposed to be. Another vehicle left the highway, crossed onto the shoulder, and ran him over.

The injuries were heavy for a man his age. Both of his legs were fractured. He broke a finger, and he sustained serious head injuries, including scalp contusions. By the time treatment was tallied, his medical bills approached $300,000. For a retiree, two broken legs and a head injury meant a long and uncertain recovery.

He hired the Charlotte personal injury firm DeMayo Law Offices, LLP. Elizabeth G. Grimes and Michael A. DeMayo represented him. Because the crash happened in Kanawha County, West Virginia, the claim was pursued there, not in North Carolina, where the client lived.

Grimes built the case on a plain fact: her client had done nothing to put himself at risk. In her account, he was "standing on the shoulder of a road near his disabled vehicle" when another vehicle veered off the highway and struck him. He was not in a lane of moving traffic. He was beside a stopped car, doing what any driver does after a breakdown, when the other vehicle crossed onto the shoulder. The firm placed the fault on the vehicle that left the road. Liability turned on where the man was standing and why the other vehicle failed to stay in its lane.

The parties settled before any trial. In late July 2013, the defense agreed to pay $3 million, and the plaintiff collected the full amount. The terms were confidential, so the names of the driver and the defendant were not made public. Because the case ended in a negotiated settlement rather than a jury verdict, there was no award to be reduced or remitted on appeal.

North Carolina Lawyers Weekly later listed the result among its Top 25 Verdicts and Settlements of 2013, where it tied for No. 19.