Jury Awards $5.2 Million After Attorneys Reject $80,000 Offer in Cyclist's Wrongful Death

On the morning of February 15, 2022, Miguel Del Angel Ortiz, 50, was riding his bicycle on Dade Boulevard at the intersection of Purdy Avenue in Miami Beach when a box truck operated by Jairo Restrepo and owned by Performance Transportation LLC made a right turn and struck him. He died as a result of his injuries.

Miami Beach Police initially determined that Ortiz was at fault for failing to yield. The case might have ended there, but attorneys Judd Rosen and Mustafa Dandashly of Goldberg and Rosen took a different view of the evidence.

The trial team assembled multiple camera sources to reconstruct the collision. Dashcam footage from the delivery truck itself placed Ortiz in the rear-view mirror moments before impact. Store surveillance cameras and an Uber dashcam captured the crash and its immediate aftermath. The Uber footage included a passenger asking whether they should stop to help, followed by the reply that the man on the ground was not OK. Audio from the truck's dashcam showed Restrepo in the middle of a phone conversation in Spanish at the time he attempted the turn. Rosen argued that Restrepo had signaled late and simply was not paying attention.

Performance Transportation and Restrepo offered Ortiz's estate $80,000 to settle the case before trial. The family and their attorneys declined. After three days of deliberation, the jury assigned the majority of fault to Restrepo, with a smaller share to Ortiz, and returned total damages of $5.2 million.

The verdict was returned in January 2024. It was approximately 65 times the defendants' pretrial settlement offer.