Nueces County Jury Returns $67.47 Million for Paralyzed Passenger in Oilfield Company-Vehicle Crash

On August 28, 2012, Christopher J. Arnold was riding as a passenger on FM 624 near Calallen, Texas, when the vehicle he was in made a U-turn and was struck by a second vehicle. Moments later, Robert Earl Sims, driving a 2009 Chevrolet Silverado on behalf of his employer, oilfield services company Weatherford US L.P., collided into Arnold's vehicle a second time. The chain reaction left Arnold with cervical and thoracic vertebral fractures, a spinal cord injury, a brain bleed, a collapsed lung, a lacerated spleen, and multiple rib fractures. He has been paralyzed from the waist down since the crash.

Arnold retained Thomas J. Henry and co-counsel Roger L. Turk, among others at the firm, to pursue Sims and Weatherford for negligence and gross negligence. Liability was disputed. The defense attributed primary fault to the driver of the vehicle Arnold was riding in and contended that Arnold's own seatbelt use was in question.

At trial in Nueces County Court at Law No. 4, the firm demonstrated two things that proved central to the verdict. First, that Sims failed to keep a safe following distance before the collision. Second, and critically, that Weatherford US L.P. had no written company policy on safe following distance at all. The absence of a policy helped establish gross negligence against the corporate defendant.

The jury found both Sims and Weatherford liable. On the verdict form it awarded Christopher Arnold $67,470,000, which Texas Lawyer (ALM) reported in naming Henry and co-counsel litigators of the week.

Before the verdict was returned, the parties had entered a high-low agreement. Under its terms, regardless of the jury's number, Weatherford's recovery exposure was capped and Arnold's minimum recovery was set; the agreement limited Arnold's actual collection to $9 million. The published verdict figure of $67.47 million reflects the jury's full damages finding, not the amount Arnold received under the high-low.