Jackson County Jury Awards $3.5 Million to Brain-Injured Driver in Fairley v. Schiber Truck Case

In 2008, James Fairley, 56, was driving his minivan near Jackson, Michigan, with his wife, Kim, in the passenger seat. An over-the-road tractor-trailer owned by Schiber Truck Co., a common and contract carrier based in Hartford, Illinois, came up behind them and could not stop in time. The truck rear-ended the minivan and shoved it into the path of a second oncoming truck, which struck the Fairleys again.

James Fairley absorbed the worst of the two impacts. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, fractured two vertebrae, and later developed depression tied to the injury. The crash was not his fault; the first truck hit him from behind. The medical picture was not seriously contested. Even the doctors hired by the trucking company's insurer agreed that Fairley was permanently disabled and faced ongoing pain and reduced earning power.

Zurich Insurance Company, the carrier behind Schiber Truck, did not fight much over whether Fairley was hurt. It bet on the venue instead. Zurich offered $1 million and pushed the case to trial, calculating that a "conservative" Jackson County jury would never value pain and suffering above that number, no matter what the evidence showed.

Steven Gursten and Thomas James of Michigan Auto Law tried the case over eight days in Jackson County Circuit Court before Judge Thomas Wilson. Liability was effectively settled, so the trial turned entirely on damages. The attorneys walked the jurors through the medical records and the unrebutted findings of the defense's own experts, then asked them to put an honest number on a life reshaped by a brain injury and a broken back.

In December 2010, the jury returned $3.5 million. James Fairley was awarded $1.5 million for his past damages and $1.5 million for his future damages. Kim Fairley received $389,000 for her past damages and $120,000 for her future damages, roughly $509,000 in all.

The result was reported as the largest auto-accident jury verdict in Jackson County. It came to three and a half times the $1 million Zurich had offered before trial. The parties had agreed before trial to cap the recoverable damages at Schiber Truck's insurance limits, so the $3.5 million figure stands as the jury's valuation of the case rather than the exact sum collected.