$26.1 Million Settlement in Tractor-Trailer Death on I-80, Reported as Pennsylvania's Largest Personal-Injury Settlement
Won by Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock Dodig.
Feldman Shepherd secured a $26.1 million settlement for the family of a man killed and a husband left with a traumatic brain injury when a tractor-trailer hit stopped traffic on Interstate 80 at more than 70 mph.
What happened
On July 6, 2010, Kathryn Sneeringer was driving eastbound on Interstate 80 in central Pennsylvania with her father, David Cook, in the front passenger seat and her husband, Peter, in the rear. Traffic had stopped for road construction. Spencer Chapman, operating a tractor-trailer owned by GLC Transportation Inc. and hauling product for Great Lakes Cheese Co. of Ohio and Great Lakes Cheese of New York, struck the rear of the Sneeringers' 2004 Toyota Matrix at more than 70 miles per hour.
David Cook died in the collision. Peter Sneeringer survived but sustained a devastating traumatic brain injury that left him with permanent physical and cognitive deficits. Kathryn Sneeringer also suffered serious physical injuries.
Feldman Shepherd attorneys Alan M. Feldman, Daniel J. Mann, and Edward S. Goldis filed suit in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, naming GLC Transportation, Great Lakes Cheese Co. of Ohio, Great Lakes Cheese of New York, and Chapman as defendants. The plaintiffs contended the driver was inattentive or asleep at the wheel; Chapman claimed sun glare impaired his visibility.
The case went to mediation before James R. Melinson of JAMS. On June 5, 2012, the parties reached a settlement of $26.1 million, a figure that the Pennsylvania Record reported was believed to be the largest personal-injury settlement ever recorded in Pennsylvania at that time.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.