$3.6 Million Settlement After Drunk Driver Rear-End Crash and Employer Dispute

Shortly before midnight on a June evening in 2017, a South Carolina man was driving home from work when a driver behind him struck his vehicle from the rear with substantial force. The impact was severe enough to require an immediate trip to the hospital.

The at-fault driver fled the scene. Officers apprehended him a short time later. When questioned, the driver claimed he had no memory of the crash and denied any involvement in it. Evidence gathered after the stop pointed to intoxication at the time of the collision.

The injuries that followed were serious. The plaintiff required cervical fusion surgery to address damage to his neck, and a meniscus tear in his knee required a separate surgical procedure. He also sustained a lower back injury. Past medical bills came to $198,329, and his treatment team projected another $621,557 in future medical costs. His recovery was expected to be long and ongoing.

The case took on additional complexity because the defendants included the driver's employer. The company disputed whether the vehicle involved was even theirs, argued the driver was not acting within the scope of employment at the time, and challenged causation at every turn. Defense counsel filed four separate motions for summary judgment over the course of the litigation. They retained seven expert witnesses, including accident reconstructionists, a neurosurgeon, an orthopedic surgeon, a neuroradiologist, and a biomechanical expert. Plaintiffs' counsel responded in kind, taking more than 20 depositions to build the factual record and counter those arguments.

Mark Bringardner, of counsel to Joye Law Firm, led the case for the plaintiff alongside co-counsel Ronnie Sabb of Kingstree. After years of litigation, the parties reached a settlement on October 16, 2020.

The total recovery was $3.6 million, subject to a confidentiality agreement that withheld party names and the specific defense attorneys. South Carolina Lawyers Weekly covered the result in December 2020 and later ranked it the tenth-largest verdict or settlement in the state for that year.