$1.6 Million Verdict Against Painesville Township for Fatal Passenger Injury
Won by Friedman Domiano & Smith.
Friedman, Domiano and Smith secured a $1.6 million verdict in Hillyer v. Painesville Township on behalf of the family of Christina Hillyer, a passenger who was fatally injured in a November 1994 accident in Lake County, Ohio.
What happened
On November 6, 1994, Christina Hillyer was riding as a passenger in a vehicle in Lake County, Ohio, when an accident occurred that proved fatal. Her father, Martin Hillyer, retained Friedman, Domiano and Smith to pursue accountability for the loss of his daughter.
The case, captioned Hillyer v. Painesville Township, resulted in a $1.6 million verdict. The Cleveland Jewish News, in a May 2022 profile of firm co-founder Jeffrey H. Friedman, listed it among the successful cases Friedman and his firm litigated, identifying the $1.6 million result by name.
The litigation did not end there. In the years that followed, an insurance coverage dispute arising from the accident reached the Supreme Court of Ohio. The 2002 opinion, Hillyer v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Co., confirms that Friedman, Domiano and Smith, together with attorneys Stephen S. Vanek and Jeffrey H. Friedman, represented Martin Hillyer as counsel of record. The opinion recounts that Christina Hillyer, his daughter, was a passenger who was fatally injured in the November 6, 1994 accident.
The $1.6 million verdict remains one of the firm's most cited results from its early years.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Cleveland Jewish News, Jeffrey Friedman obituary feature naming Hillyer v. Painesville Township and its $1.6 million verdict (staffed editorial, May 2022)
- 2.Hillyer v. State Farm Fire and Cas. Co., Supreme Court of Ohio (2002), court opinion confirming Friedman Domiano and Smith, Stephen S. Vanek, and Jeffrey H. Friedman as counsel in the Hillyer litigation