$22.6 Million Verdict for Port Trucker Left Permanently Disabled After On-the-Job Crash

On March 3, 2011, Burt Holt, then 52, was doing routine work: inspecting his trailer at Container Port Group on Fort Street in Detroit. A truck driven by Amarild Ushe, operating for Reliable Transportation Specialists, struck Holt while he was on the ground. The collision ended his trucking career and set in motion years of medical treatment.

Holt's injuries were severe and lasting. He underwent four surgeries and extended inpatient rehabilitation. His treating physicians testified at trial that the crash caused a traumatic brain injury, severe depression, and chronic pain syndrome, conditions they described as lifelong and expected to worsen with age. He lost his trucking business entirely.

Ven Johnson of Johnson Law, PLC tried the case over three weeks before Judge Kathleen MacDonald in Wayne County Circuit Court. The plaintiff's team put Holt's treating physicians on the stand and presented evidence that Ushe's negligence was the direct cause of each injury and its long-term consequences. The defense contested liability and the severity of Holt's claimed damages.

On June 9, 2015, the jury returned a unanimous verdict of $22.6 million, the largest personal injury verdict in Michigan that year. Of that total, $15.6 million was entered as a judgment against Reliable Transportation Specialists, Ushe, and Container Port Group. Crain's Detroit Business later ranked the result alongside Geoffrey Fieger's $21 million Beaumont Hospital verdict as one of the two largest 2015 jury verdicts in the state.

The defense appealed. On May 23, 2017, a unanimous three-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict, finding no significant trial errors warranting reversal. Christopher Desmond of the firm handled the appeal.