A CRST Big Rig Drifted Across Route 14, and Two Brothers Won $53.7 Million

On July 7, 2014, around 2 p.m., Matthew and Michael Lennig were driving north on State Route 14 near Mojave, in Kern County. They were headed to an annual fishing trip at Mammoth Lakes. As their car reached a construction zone, a CRST big rig driven by Hector Contreras crossed the yellow center line into oncoming traffic and struck them head-on.

Michael Lennig, 36, was a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy who lived in San Dimas. His brother Matthew, 30, lived in Rancho Cucamonga and worked at Bose. Both men came away from the wreck with traumatic brain injuries. They also reported post-traumatic stress and serious back and arm injuries that changed how they worked and lived.

CRST and Contreras admitted the driver caused the crash, so the trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court turned on a single question: what the brothers' harm was worth. The defense disputed how severe the brain injuries really were and showed jurors surveillance video of the two men going about ordinary activities. CRST's highest pretrial offer was $11.5 million, and at trial it argued a fair figure sat closer to $12 million.

Brian Panish tried the case for the Lennigs, working with co-counsel that included his partner Kevin Boyle and the Parris Law Firm. The plaintiffs' team walked jurors through the physics of a high-speed head-on impact and the lasting cognitive damage that followed. They argued the surveillance clips said nothing about the daily limits the brothers now lived with, and they asked the jury for roughly $105 million. The plaintiffs also raised Contreras's record of prior safety violations as part of their case against the company.

The jury sided with the brothers. Local outlets reported the verdict at $53.7 million, returned in February 2018 after a trial that ran about four weeks. Courtroom View Network, which covered the proceedings, tallied the award at $52.84 million. Under either count, the result came in at more than four times CRST's best settlement offer.

CRST had told jurors that roughly $101 million in insurance coverage was available to pay any judgment. The company admitted its driver's negligence at the outset and contested only the dollar value of the injuries, and the jury answered with a figure many times its final pretrial number.