Case Studies

Creative Lawyering Yields Client One Million Six Hundred and Seventy Thousand Dollars

During the late hours of the night, Martin Jones was walking along the side of the road returning home. Suddenly and without any warning, he was struck by a drunk driver who was driving his employer’s vehicle. The drunk driver drove the vehicle across the center line of traffic on that road, climbed the curb with his vehicle and hit Mr. Jones from behind. After being struck by the drunk driver, Mr. Jones flew through the air and landed on the side of the road.

Mr. Jones suffered a traumatic brain injury, fractured ribs, sustained knee injuries and various lacerations and abrasions. He was rushed to the ER after the accident. Thereafter, he saw several physician specialists over several years as he began the long road to recovery. Unfortunately, Mr. Jones was left with permanent disabilities. These disabilities interrupted Mr. Martin’s active lifestyle.

There were many contentious issues in this case, as the attorneys for the drunk driver and his employers tried to minimize the liability of these defendants and their insurance company. The Defendents’ attorneys argued that under Connecticut law, the employer had exposure for only relatively minimal damages, rather than large punitive money damages. They asserted that the drunk driver was using the vehicle, on the night of the incident with Mr. Jones, for personal use and not for company business. Therefore, they claimed under Connecticut law that the employer was not responsible for large monetary punitive damages for the drunken and reckless behavior of its employee. Because of these arguments, the Defendents’ attorneys were resolute in offering Mr. Jones only an insignificant amount of money to settle this matter.

After many hours of research and analysis, Mr. Jones’ attorneys devised a creative legal theory to overcome the arguments of the Defendants’ attorneys and expose the Defendant employer to almost certain large punitive damages if this matter went to trial. Mr. Jones’ attorneys argued that the drunk driver’s employer was exposed to punitive damages if the drunk driver’s use his employer’s vehicle was viewed as a lease or rental car. Under Connecticut law, one who leases or rents a car is responsible for all the damages that the operator of the car is, including punitive damages.

The drunk driver testified in his deposition that $60.00 monthly was deducted out of his pay by his employer for his personal use of the employer’s vehicle. Mr. Jones’ attorneys creatively argued that this $60.00 payment by the drunk driver to the employer amounted to a rental or a lease and therefore exposed the employer to large punitive money damages for reckless and drunken conduct of its employee on the night in question.

When the Mediation sessions concluded after two grueling days, a settlement of $1,670,00 was achieved for the client…a far cry from the paltry sum offered during the preceding years of litigation.