San Diego Jury Holds Pizza Hut Liable for $10.8 Million After Delivery Driver's Head-On Crash

On November 9, 2008, an 18-year-old Pizza Hut delivery driver named Nicole Fisk was working a route on Clairemont Drive in San Diego. She drifted across the center divide into oncoming traffic and collided head-on with another car. At the time, she had held her driver's license for only about three months, and she was carrying a delivery for the restaurant when the cars met.

The other car carried Olena Marie Novak, who was 87, and her adult daughter, Shari Marie Novak. Olena suffered a severe multi-level cervical fracture. Shari's injuries were worse: a catastrophic, permanent brain injury that left her requiring 24-hour care. Her condition did not improve after the crash, and the cost of that ongoing care became a central part of the damages at trial.

Pizza Hut's defense rested on a single idea. The company argued the crash was a sudden medical emergency, claiming that Fisk had suffered a seizure caused by epilepsy that no one had diagnosed before the collision, so neither she nor her employer could be blamed. Joe Lavelle and co-counsel John Gomez, representing the Novak family, told the jury a different story. They pointed to Fisk's history of blackout spells and staring episodes that predated her hiring. Their argument was that she knew she had a medical condition, and that Pizza Hut should have done more to confirm she could safely work as a professional driver.

The jury rejected the sudden-emergency theory. It found that Fisk was negligent and that no medical emergency excused her conduct behind the wheel. On the separate question of whether Pizza Hut had been careless in hiring her, the jury sided with the company.

That did not end Pizza Hut's exposure. The jury held the company responsible under respondeat superior, the rule that makes an employer answerable for an employee's negligence committed within the scope of the job. Fisk was delivering pizza when the wreck happened, so liability for her driving fell on Pizza Hut.

In 2010, the San Diego County Superior Court jury returned a total verdict of $10.8 million against Pizza Hut. The larger share of the award went to Shari Novak to cover the cost of her lifelong care, with the remainder compensating her mother for her injuries.