Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani Senior Counsel John Hilkin obtained a defense verdict in Adams County, Colorado, following a six-day jury trial in a premises liability case.
Following a nighttime one-vehicle collision in a work zone in 2017, the plaintiff suffered an L3 burst fracture requiring an emergency corpectomy and fusion. The plaintiff alleged the temporary traffic control was inadequate to warn of the dangerous condition within the work zone. The plaintiff also alleged that the object he struck was an inherently dangerous condition and that the roadway was not properly lit or delineated with traffic control devices.
The plaintiff presented expert testimony in areas of pain management and rehabilitation, life care planning, accident reconstruction, work zone safety, medical billing reasonableness, and economics to support his claim for $9.8 million dollars in damage. At trial, the defense presented lay and expert witness testimony to show that traffic control devices were properly placed according to applicable standards. After less than 90 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned a unanimous defense verdict.