Oakland County Jury Awards Father $2 Million for White Lake Crash, Seven Times the Insurer's Offer

In 2021, John Hoye was 28 years old and sitting in his Chevrolet HHR at a stop sign in White Lake Township, Michigan, waiting to pull onto M-59. An SUV came off M-59 at a high rate of speed and slammed into the driver's side of his car. He had no chance to react.

The crash left Hoye, a young father, with severe injuries. He fractured his pelvis, hip, femur, sternum, a rib, and his neck, and he suffered a traumatic brain injury. He now walks with the help of a cane and still faces more surgery, including a left hip replacement. The activities he had built his life around, among them horseback riding and competitive Muay Thai, were gone. He later relocated to Texas.

Auto-Owners Insurance, the carrier defending the claim, valued the case at $275,000 and pushed Hoye to settle for that figure. He declined and hired Mike Morse Law Firm, which took the case to trial in Oakland County Circuit Court in Pontiac.

Attorneys Mike Morse, Paul Wheatley, and Chris Filiatraut tried the case over four days. The other driver's defense was that he had blacked out behind the wheel, an event he described as sudden and impossible to predict. To win, the firm had to convince the jury that the blackout did not excuse the driver from responsibility for the harm he caused. The firm's lawyers showed the jury that the blackout was not a surprise at all. The same driver had blacked out earlier that summer, causing an earlier crash, and he had blacked out again in his own home just four days before he hit Hoye. By the time he reached the stop sign on M-59, the warning signs were already on the record.

The jury agreed and returned a verdict for Hoye of $2 million, about a year and a half after the collision. That award came to seven times the pre-trial offer. "No amount of money can replace what John lost in this terrible crash, including his ability to enjoy the activities he once loved," Morse said after the verdict.

The $2 million verdict was entered in 2023. The public record shows no reduction of the award and no appeal.