$35 Million Verdict for Kirkpatrick Family After Fatal DUI Crash on Tamiami Trail

On February 18, 2009, Robert C. Kirkpatrick and his wife Paulette, both 63 and recently retired, were driving along Tamiami Trail in West Miami-Dade when a Toyota Tundra pickup crossed into their lane and struck their Chevrolet Cobalt head-on. The driver of that truck, Thomas D. Cypress, had a blood-alcohol content of .249, more than three times Florida's legal limit. A case of Budweiser sat on his front seat. He was operating the vehicle on a suspended license, the result of a prior DUI conviction, and this crash was his third DUI arrest.

Cypress, brother of former Miccosukee Indian Tribe chairman Billy Cypress, pleaded guilty to DUI manslaughter in 2010 and received a 12-year prison sentence. The criminal case settled the question of his culpability. What remained was the civil reckoning sought by the Kirkpatricks' two surviving adult children, Stephen W. Kirkpatrick and Jennifer R. Kirkpatrick, who brought suit as personal representatives of their parents' estates.

Judd Rosen and Brett Rosen of Goldberg & Rosen tried the case in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. The compensatory phase concluded first, with jurors awarding Stephen and Jennifer $15 million each, for a combined $30 million in compensatory damages. Brett Rosen used an unconventional opening strategy during the proceedings, reenacting one of Robert Kirkpatrick's Civil War history lectures to help jurors understand the texture of his life before it was cut short.

The jury then turned to punitive damages. Given Cypress's history of multiple DUI arrests and the presence of open alcohol in the cab, the case met Florida's threshold for punitive liability. The jury added $5 million in punitive damages, bringing the total verdict to $35 million.

At the time of the verdict, the award was described as the largest damages recovery for surviving adult children in Florida history. Stephen Kirkpatrick said the civil judgment represented the portion of the case that mattered most for demonstrating consequences. The Miccosukee Tribe was not a party to the civil suit; the judgment runs against Thomas Cypress personally.