$37.5 Million Jury Verdict for Man Paralyzed When Semi Struck His Car on I-435

On February 13, 2014, Philip Stratman's car stalled in the center lane of Interstate 435 in Kansas City, Missouri. Rather than move to the shoulder, Stratman shifted into neutral in an attempt to preserve his brakes, leaving his vehicle sitting in live highway traffic. Steven Holdeman, driving behind him, had to brake hard to avoid a collision.

Before Holdeman could clear the hazard, a tractor-trailer traveling behind him failed to stop in time and struck his car from behind. The force of the crash shoved Holdeman's vehicle into Stratman's and crushed Holdeman's spine. He was left a paraplegic.

Holdeman and his wife sued both Stratman and the tractor-trailer's driver. At trial, attorneys Tim Dollar and Tom Hershewe of Dollar, Burns and Becker argued that Stratman bore primary responsibility for creating a stationary obstacle in a high-speed lane with no warning to drivers approaching from behind.

The Jackson County jury agreed. After deliberating, jurors assigned Stratman 99 percent of the fault and entered a verdict of $30 million for Steven Holdeman's personal injuries and $7.5 million to his wife for loss of consortium, a total of $37.5 million. Judgment was entered in December 2016.

Stratman appealed. The Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, affirmed the verdict in 2018, issuing its opinion at 556 S.W.3d 46. No remittitur was ordered and the award was not reduced on appeal. Stratman carried only $100,000 in Allstate liability coverage, a figure vastly exceeded by the judgment, which later gave rise to a separate bad-faith insurance litigation resolved through a $30.5 million settlement between Allstate and the Holdemans.