Farm Laborer Paralyzed at Railroad Crossing Wins $21.5 Million Verdict in Madera County

On the afternoon of June 17, 2015, Jose Maclovio was riding home from the fields in a van with fellow farm laborers on Avenue 15 in Madera. The van stopped at a railroad crossing. Craig Brewer, driving behind it, did not stop in time and struck the van at high speed.

Maclovio suffered a burst fracture at the C5 vertebra. Emergency surgery followed, but it could not reverse the damage. He was left with partial quadriplegia, paralyzed from the neck down at 18 years old.

Dunnion Law attorneys Denis M. Delja and Connell Dunnion took on the case and made a deliberate tactical choice: they pursued general damages only, asking the jury to place a dollar value on Maclovio's pain, loss of enjoyment of life, emotional distress, and the full weight of what lay ahead for him. They presented experts in neurosurgery and internal medicine to explain the permanence of his condition. No economic damages claim accompanied the ask.

The jury in Madera County Superior Court returned its verdict on February 28, 2020, after just one hour of deliberation. The panel awarded the full $21,513,000 that Dunnion Law had requested. It was the largest verdict ever returned to a single plaintiff in Madera County and the sixth largest general damages verdict in the California Central Valley over the prior 15 years.

Following the verdict, Brewer filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Maclovio, represented through the adversary proceeding, sought to have the judgment declared non-dischargeable under federal bankruptcy law on the ground that Brewer had been unlawfully intoxicated at the time of the crash. A federal court in the Eastern District of California addressed that proceeding in August 2020, with the $21,513,000 state court judgment on record.