Second Time Around, Hearn Secures (Another) Favorable Outcome in Motorcycle Lawsuit Seeking $1.1M

After a four-day trial involving a motorcycle lawsuit, Johnson & Bell Shareholder, Edward W. Hearn secured a favorable outcome for his insurance company client and its insured party.  At closing, plaintiff asked the jury to return a verdict for $1.1 million.  The jury awarded the plaintiff $100,000. This was the second time Mr. Hearn tried this case, initially securing a jury verdict for the defense in 2015.  In the first trial, plaintiff sought $1.8 million in damages.  A pivotal development in the first trial was the defense’s successful motion to bar the plaintiff’s expert from testifying. However, the Court of Appeals ruled that the expert should have been allowed to testify.  The case involved a 20-year-old male who was riding a moped and collided with our client, a driver of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The plaintiff claimed that the driver of the Harley-Davidson crossed the center line, passed an automobile, and when the plaintiff went to make a left hand turn, struck the plaintiff on his moped.  Plaintiff filed a suit for liability and damages arguing that the accident with the Harley-Davidson caused him to shatter his pelvis, suffer a compression fracture of his spine and later develop Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) to his left foot – also known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD).  The defendant claimed that the plaintiff was riding the “fog line” on the road and made no indication that he planned to make a left-hand turn.  When the operator of the Harley-Davidson went to pass him, the moped driver veered left and struck his motorcycle.