Illinois Record Double-Amputation Verdict: $95.5 Million for Truck Driver Who Lost Both Legs After Carbon Steel Bundle Fell from Crane

On July 1, 2014, Robert Montagano drove a flatbed truck to Metal-Matic Inc., a metal supplier in the Bedford Park area outside Chicago. There, workers using a crane stacked five full bundles and one partial bundle of carbon steel tubing, each weighing roughly 3,400 pounds, onto his trailer. He then drove to Leading Edge Hydraulics in Rockford to deliver the load.

At the Rockford facility, a crane operator asked Montagano to help guide the unloading. When the operator moved the third bundle, the fourth bundle shifted and fell. It crushed both of Montagano's legs. He was rushed to a trauma center where doctors amputated his right leg above the knee four days later because of blood loss and necrotic tissue. Three weeks after that, a fungal infection forced surgeons to amputate his left leg above the knee as well.

Montagano and his wife Mary retained Joseph A. Power Jr. and James I. Power of Power Rogers and Smith LLP (now Power Rogers LLP) and filed suit against Metal-Matic Inc., Leading Edge Group Inc., and Leading Edge Hydraulics Inc. The case turned on how the bundles had been stacked at the point of origin. Plaintiffs argued that Metal-Matic had placed lighter bundles on top of heavier ones, creating a cantilever configuration that became unstable in transit and made the load prone to rolling when disturbed by crane movement. They further argued that Metal-Matic failed to warn its own workers against that stacking practice, and that Leading Edge violated industry unloading procedures by pressing an uncertified driver into active assist work rather than keeping him clear of the crane's swing radius.

After a three-week trial before Judge Marguerite A. Quinn in the Circuit Court of Cook County, the jury returned a verdict of $95,477,464. The breakdown included $23 million for pain and suffering, $22 million for loss of normal life, $15 million for emotional distress, $10 million for disfigurement, approximately $12.7 million for past and future medical expenses, and $773,774 for lost earnings. Jurors separately awarded $12 million to Mary Montagano for loss of consortium.

The jury assigned 10% of the fault to Montagano for his own conduct during unloading. Under Illinois comparative fault rules, his individual damages were reduced by that proportion, producing a net award of $85,929,717.60. A third-party defendant had already settled before trial for $500,000 and waived a $2.1 million workers' compensation lien. According to data published by the Illinois Jury Verdict Reporter, the net recovery was the highest ever recorded in Illinois for a lawsuit involving double leg amputations, surpassing a $39.2 million award from 1985 that had included $26 million in punitive damages.