Largest verdicts in Texas

A Cobb County, Georgia jury found that Monsanto's Roundup caused John Barnes's non-Hodgkin lymphoma and awarded him $2.065 billion, with Arnold & Itkin's Kyle Findley serving as lead trial lawyer.

A federal court in Washington, D.C. awarded $1.956 billion to 114 survivors and Gold Star family members in Carlson Law Firm's second successful default-judgment lawsuit holding Iran liable for the October 2000 USS Cole bombing.

A Dallas County jury found developer Greystar liable for the 2019 tower crane collapse that killed 29-year-old Kiersten Smith in her apartment, returning an $860 million verdict that Jason and Cory Itkin helped win for her family.

A federal court in Washington, D.C. awarded $807 million to 58 USS Cole bombing survivors and immediate family members after finding that Iran provided material support to the al-Qaeda operatives who carried out the 2000 attack.

A Harris County jury awarded Mary Johnson $557 million against Union Pacific for a 2016 Houston train strike that cost her a leg, several fingers, and left her with a brain injury, a figure the trial court later cut and an appeals court reversed for a new trial.

A San Antonio jury returned the largest sexual assault verdict in U.S. history against a sole assailant, awarding $325 million to a child sexually abused by her grandfather over multiple years.

A Kaufman County jury awarded $296 million in compensatory damages against Koch Industries after a corroded, unmaintained butane pipeline exploded and killed two teenagers on August 24, 1996.

A Dallas County jury returned one of the largest medical-malpractice verdicts in the country after a teenager with cerebral palsy died at Medical City Dallas when hospital staff administered multiple times the appropriate dose of the anesthetic propofol following a routine airway procedure.

A Fort Bend County jury awarded $222 million to the widow of Jesse Henson, a power-plant repairman scalded to death by superheated steam from a relief valve serviced by Team Industrial Services, a judgment a Texas appeals court later reversed before dismissing the case on the ground that it belonged in Kansas.

A Harris County jury awarded Laura Schneider and her three children $209.2 million after finding that Terra Energy Partners hid a known hantavirus danger that killed her husband, Karl.

A Santa Fe jury awarded $165.5 million, the largest verdict in New Mexico history, to the survivors of a young mother and her daughter killed when a FedEx tractor-trailer plowed into their stopped pickup at highway speed on Interstate 10.

A Dallas jury returned a $119.6 million verdict against the Catholic Diocese of Dallas after finding it grossly negligent and fraudulent in concealing years of sexual abuse by priest Rudy Kos; eight of the eleven plaintiffs, represented by Windle Turley, later settled for $23.4 million.

A unanimous Travis County jury returned a $112.9 million verdict against Wings 'N More and the intoxicated driver who struck the Carpenter family vehicle in August 2023, causing catastrophic injuries to a 6-year-old passenger.

An El Paso jury returned a $104 million verdict against Mesilla Valley Transportation after its driver fell asleep on I-40 in Oklahoma and crashed into a disabled truck, killing Orlando Robles, 38, who was sleeping in the sleeper berth.

A Dallas jury awarded $84.25 million in 2008 after a 26-foot U-Haul truck with a failed parking brake rolled over Talmadge Waldrip, leaving him bedridden and requiring round-the-clock care.

A Dallas jury awarded $71.95 million to the widow and four children of electrician Hernan Murillo, killed at an Irving Frito-Lay warehouse in 2019 when a boom lift struck his elevated scissor lift.

Roughly 700,000 Texas auto insurance policyholders shared a $52 million class settlement after a federal lawsuit showed Farmers Group charged long-term customers higher premiums than new customers for coverage that was functionally identical.

A Dallas County jury awarded $51 million in August 2024 to a South Dallas mother and her two young children after a corroded boiler exhaust pipe at their apartment complex channeled carbon monoxide into their home in 2015, leaving both children with irreversible brain injuries.

A Limestone County jury awarded $41 million to a married couple who suffered catastrophic injuries when an intoxicated company driver ran a stop sign and struck their pickup truck, holding both the driver and his employer vicariously liable.

A Dallas jury awarded $37.6 million in February 2019 to Sarah Milburn, left quadriplegic after a 2015 Uber crash, after finding Honda's two-part third-row seat belt design so counterintuitive that fewer than one in ten unfamiliar users could operate it correctly; the Texas Supreme Court reversed the judgment in 2024 on statutory presumption grounds.

A Dallas County jury found Oncor's driver 84 percent at fault and awarded $37.5 million to the widow and three children of trucker Shamsher Singh, killed on I-635 when a distracted Oncor service-truck driver struck his stopped 18-wheeler.

Zehl & Associates secured a $35 million settlement for the family of Susana Longoria, a 31-year-old nursing student and single mother killed when a Ben E. Keith 18-wheeler struck her disabled car and the people helping her on I-35W in Fort Worth.

A federal jury awarded Kimberly Curtis $2 million in compensatory and $30 million in punitive damages after a sliding barn door fell on her at a Manhattan Hilton Garden Inn and defendants were found to have willfully destroyed evidence; a judge later cut the punitive award to $10 million.

A Denton County jury awarded $32 million in February 2019 to a woman who was sexually assaulted at age 14 after two Hebron High School football players spiked her drink at a 2012 party, neither of whom had ever faced criminal charges.

Barbara Dalby, an Odessa proposal specialist and mother of three, secured a $30 million settlement against Hunt Oil after one of the company's intoxicated employees struck her head-on in 2019, leaving her with permanent spinal injuries and unable to work.

A Harris County jury found ExxonMobil 100% responsible for a July 2019 explosion at its Baytown olefins plant caused by decades-ignored popcorn polymer buildup, awarding five injured workers $28,591,000 after three weeks of trial.

A Dallas County jury awarded $25 million to the mother of Jerry Brown Jr., a Dallas Cowboys practice-squad player killed when his teammate Josh Brent drove drunk at more than twice the legal limit, after finding that Beamers nightclub had over-served Brent alcohol before the fatal crash.

A Dallas County jury returned a $21 million verdict for the family of Carlos David Castro Rojas, a young man who suffered permanent, severe brain damage during what should have been a routine leg surgery at Baylor University Medical Center in 2017.

A Harris County jury awarded about $21 million to Santiago Arias, a construction worker paralyzed from the chest down after falling roughly 20 feet at a Houston job site where his employer had provided no fall-protection equipment or safety training.

A Dallas County jury awarded $17.5 million to David Fitzgerald, a former maintenance worker who lost both arms and both legs after his infectious disease physician administered eight ineffective antibiotics while never prescribing the one drug that would have stopped his MRSA infection.

Zehl & Associates recovered $16 million for a drillship floorhand injured in the moonpool of a Gulf of Mexico rig, ranked by TopVerdicts as the largest reported Jones Act maritime settlement in Texas for 2025.

A Harris County probate jury found Raymond James and Associates liable for a 2019 fuel-starvation crash near Kerrville that killed six people, awarding $12.1 million to the families of three passengers after five hours of deliberation.

A Harris County jury found the operator of Houston's Cosmic Jump trampoline park grossly negligent and awarded $11.485 million, including $6 million in punitive damages, to a teenager who suffered a traumatic brain injury after falling through a torn trampoline bed onto concrete.

Windle Turley won a $10.15 million jury verdict against Freightliner after the company's lightweight aluminum saddle-tank fuel system ruptured and ignited in a 1974 Texas rollover, killing a husband and wife and leaving their children orphaned. After a decade of appeals, the punitive-damages liability was upheld but the amount was reduced to $450,000.

Fore Aero agreed to pay $10 million to the family of a Bell 212 pilot killed in Alberta after investigators found the company manufactured a critical rotor-hub pin from steel weaker than specifications required.

Windle Turley filed a $400 million federal lawsuit in Dallas on behalf of former Hare Krishna boarding-school students who suffered rape, physical torture, and emotional abuse as children; the litigation resolved in 2005 through a California bankruptcy court settlement paying $9.5 million to hundreds of victims.

A Dallas County jury found Episcopal School of Dallas grossly negligent and awarded $9.3 million after the school forced out a 16-year-old student who had been sexually abused by her history teacher, rather than protecting her.

Shamieh Law and co-counsel secured an $8 million settlement for two former New Mexico State University basketball players who were sexually assaulted by teammates while coaches and administrators failed to act.

A Dallas County jury awarded Greyhound passenger Ashley Reedy $7.2 million after a phone-distracted driver rolled the bus on an icy stretch of Interstate 40.

A Harris County jury found Red Bluff LLC, owner of the Courtyards of Pasadena nursing home, liable for $7.1 million after a certified nursing assistant suffered a serious spinal injury when a wheelchair with faulty brakes gave way during a bariatric patient transfer.

Luna County agreed to a $7 million settlement after a sheriff's deputy driving more than 130 mph T-boned a family's car on a rural New Mexico highway, killing a 14-month-old boy and severely injuring his mother.

After a Detmar Logistics frac sand truck fatally injured Nanasha Ra-Nee Mild in 2018, Sutliff & Stout identified six liable parties and secured a $6.09 million settlement that ranked ninth among all Texas civil settlements in 2019.

A Dallas County jury returned a $6 million wrongful-death verdict for the family of Paula Hahn, one of two women killed when a charter bus carrying Choctaw Casino passengers rolled over in Irving, Texas, in April 2013.

Bexar County agreed to pay $5 million to resolve a federal civil-rights suit after sheriff's deputies fatally shot 6-year-old Kameron Prescott inside his family's home during a 2017 manhunt, with Tom Crosley representing the boy's father.

The estates of two men killed when a Superior Air Parts XP-400 crankshaft failed during a 2016 Florida flight settled for $5 million, prompting the company to buy back all XP-400 and XP-382 engines it had sold.

A San Antonio jury found $4.675 million in total damages for a construction worker who suffered a serious injury when an HVAC unit that a crane rigging company had improperly rigged rolled onto him and struck him.

A Travis County jury found J.D. Abrams LP 100% negligent after construction logs fell on a worker passing beneath the Highways 183 and 35 interchange project, awarding $4,507,000 in damages.

A Texas appeals court affirmed a $4.5 million jury award for Jerry Thomas, an East Texas man who lost his hand at a sawmill in Rusk, holding that the owner never established an employment relationship and could not invoke the workers' compensation exclusive-remedy defense.

An El Paso jury awarded more than $4 million on behalf of an auto dealership employee who was catastrophically injured when a co-worker's truck struck her in the dealership parking lot after hours, and the Texas Supreme Court in June 2023 blocked an attempt to retry the case, locking in the verdict.

A Travis County jury found Texas Regional Landfill Co. 100% negligent after a visitor fell from a horizontal post at the landfill scale, suffering a traumatic brain injury and a torn elbow ligament, and awarded $3,962,887.

After two hung juries, a federal jury in Austin found Sea Ray and Mercury Marine liable for a design defect in an unguarded boat propeller that severed an 18-year-old's right leg on Lake Austin, awarding $3.8 million; the Fifth Circuit unanimously affirmed.

A mother and her two toddler daughters, each diagnosed with PTSD after surviving the American Airlines Flight 1420 runway crash in Little Rock, won a $3.35 million jury verdict that the Eighth Circuit affirmed in full.

Attorney Joseph Morrison secured a $2,502,500 settlement for a motorist who sustained bone fractures after another driver made an illegal turn and caused a car-on-car collision in Texas.

Brad Vinson of Smith and Vinson secured a $2.5 million settlement after Williamson County sheriff's deputies orchestrated a military-style SWAT raid on Gary Watsky's Cedar Park home in 2019 so the arrest of his son could be filmed for the A&E reality series 'Live PD.'

A Phillips County, Arkansas jury awarded $2.5 million to tire shop owner Michael Snyder after a Chinese-made tire with an antiquated weftless bead design exploded during mounting, causing a serious head injury.

A passenger suffered spinal injuries in a multi-vehicle rear-end collision in Texas; co-counsel Joseph Morrison of Mullen & Mullen Law Firm and Christopher S. Hamilton of Hamilton Wingo, LLP secured a $2.375 million settlement, ranking #26 among all Texas personal injury settlements in 2024.

A New Mexico jury awarded Jose Sandoval $2.2 million and found Baker Hughes 100% at fault after a pressurized packer tool exploded on a well site, driving a chain tong handle into Sandoval's leg and causing a severe femur fracture.

A Tarrant County jury awarded Lionel Telfort and Katiria Nunez more than $2 million on their underinsured motorist claim against State Farm after the at-fault driver's policy limits left their damages unsatisfied; State Farm's subsequent appeal was dismissed in 2024.

Sutliff and Stout won a $1.94 million wrongful death verdict against ExxonMobil for the family of Alfredo Pagayon, a Harris County man who died after an ExxonMobil cashier attacked him at a Houston convenience store; the Texas Supreme Court reversed the judgment in 2017, ruling that the employer owed no supervisory duty under the circumstances.

Shamieh Law secured a $1.2 million settlement for Bomani Barton, who suffered seven facial surgeries after an Austin police officer fired three beanbag rounds at him during May 2020 racial-justice protests.

After a two-week trial in which the defense disputed whether the collision caused the plaintiffs' injuries, a Harris County jury returned a $917,874 verdict in April 2023 for Frank and Candace Gabeletto, ranking the result No. 23 among Texas's top personal injury verdicts that year.

A Dallas County jury found Taco Bell 100% liable and awarded Deandre Gilkey $756,794 after store surveillance showed an employee had noticed a floor puddle 34 seconds before Gilkey slipped, fell, and ultimately underwent back surgery.

An Austin jury awarded Steven Gambler $591,560 in June 2024 after a Servicemaster restoration company driver struck him in a parking lot in July 2021.

In 2015, a Texas jury awarded $568,875 to the plaintiff in a car accident case tried by Hank Stout and Graham Sutliff of Sutliff & Stout, ranking the result 77th among all Texas civil jury verdicts for the year on TopVerdict's annual list.

A Bexar County jury valued Daniel Irwin's crash injuries at nearly $499,000, and in 2021 the Texas Supreme Court let his policy recovery and a $45,540 attorney-fee award against Allstate stand, confirming that Texas drivers can sue their own underinsured-motorist carrier by declaratory judgment.

A retired Texas elementary school teacher received a $402,500 settlement after a distracted teenage driver crossed the center line on FM 2843 in Bell County and struck her vehicle head-on, fracturing seven ribs and forcing her to leave a teaching career that had spanned five decades.

A Travis County jury found The Carpenter Hotel 95% at fault after a guest stepped into an unmaintained area and fell three to four feet, awarding $201,467.69 in compensatory damages plus $200,000 in exemplary damages for gross negligence, for a total of $401,467.69.

A Williamson County jury found Barbara Burgess entitled to $386,008 in compensatory damages after her UIM carrier, Allstate, refused to pay her claim without a trial, then paid the $50,000 policy limit only after the verdict came in.

Ben Abbott PC secured a $286,715 jury verdict for a grandmother, her daughter, and her grandson after a pickup truck driver rear-ended their stopped sedan on Westmoreland Road in Dallas.

Crosley Law won a $223,379 jury verdict against the at-fault driver who caused a 2016 San Antonio crash and made the client's own insurer, Allstate, cover his attorney's fees, an award the appeals court left almost entirely in place.

A Travis County jury sided with two commission-paid roofing salesmen who sued their employer for unpaid commissions, awarding them a combined $151,210.61 in damages plus attorney's fees and a share of future project proceeds; the Texas Third Court of Appeals later affirmed the judgment while modifying the attorney's fee award, and enforcement ultimately required a court-appointed receiver.

A Harris County jury returned a $115,234 verdict for plaintiff Krystal Buford after attorney Daragh Carter of Smith and Hassler tried a multi-defendant motor vehicle case through trial in March 2024.

A Harris County jury found Dawn Barrientes negligent and grossly negligent after she struck a Houston family of four on I-45 twice, then drove away, awarding $41,993.71 to the Malave family.

A Montgomery County jury found a driver 70 percent liable for striking a 16-year-old pedestrian who had crossed outside a marked crosswalk, awarding $38,124.88 that was reduced to $26,687.42 after comparative-fault apportionment.

Armstrong Lee & Baker won reversal of a federal preemption dismissal, reviving negligence claims brought by the family of a Tyson Foods meatpacking worker who died of COVID-19 after a coworker with a known positive test continued coming to work.

Crosley Law represented 253 San Antonio children against a six-clinic dental chain accused of billing Medicaid for unnecessary procedures, ending in a confidential multimillion-dollar settlement approved in 2014.

Michael Slack and Ladd Sanger of Slack and Davis secured a confidential settlement in March 2014 for the family of Stuart Robertson, one of five people killed when a Blue Hawaiian Helicopters tour flight crashed into a mountain ridge on Molokai, Hawaii, on November 10, 2011.

Karen Gress was rear-ended on Interstate 35 after stopping for a prior accident ahead; Candelario Trevino took the case to verdict over a defense that dismissed the collision as too minor to cause real injury.

Michael Slack secured a confidential settlement against Robinson Helicopter after defective aluminum fuel tanks on an R-44 ruptured in a 2006 Fredericksburg, Texas crash and fire that killed the pilot and two passengers, with the deal requiring Robinson to retrofit its entire fleet with crash-resistant bladder tanks.

After two jury trials and years of appeals, the family of a New Mexico State Police officer killed in a 2001 air-ambulance helicopter crash won a wrongful-death verdict against the hospital that hired the operator without adequately vetting its fitness.

Windle Turley obtained what legal scholars credit as the first jury verdict applying the crashworthiness doctrine to an aircraft, holding Cessna liable for a fuel-system design that allowed occupants, including children, to burn to death in a post-crash fire following a Texas runway departure.