Ninth Circuit Upholds $26.4 Million Personal Injury Jury Verdict Against Trucking Company for Negligence and Reckless Driving in Fatal Crash
Tom D’Amore, Managing Partner and owner of D’Amore Law Group, is pleased to announce that on April 21, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a 2019 federal jury verdict of $26.4 million – the largest trucking verdict out of the state of Oregon – in full with no further ability to appeal. D’Amore represented Mr. Matthew Allison, a 27-year-old man who suffer significant injuries and lost his 30-year-old wife Sara Allison in a horrific head-on truck v. car collision caused by the recklessness and prolonged bout of road rage between four commercial truck drivers employed by Horizon Transport Inc. and Smoot Brothers Transportation.
Defendant Horizon Transport, after the trial court denied its motion for a new trial/remittitur, appealed to the Ninth Circuit last summer, but then dismissed its appeal last month. The case is Matthew Allison and Tim Nay, Personal Representative of the Estate of Sara Allison v. Horizon Transport and Smoot Brothers Transportation.
Of note, the plaintiffs shared 70 percent of the $6.5 million punitive damages jury verdict with the State of Oregon pursuant to Oregon law; the shared funds go to the state Crime Victims Fund to pay for care for other victims of crime.
This victory earned D’Amore recognition as a Litigator of the Week runner-up by The Litigation Daily from The American Lawyer.
An attorney for more than 25 years, D’Amore is licensed to practice law in Oregon, Washington and California, and is a board-certified civil trial attorney with the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA). D’Amore is also board-certified in trucking injury law by the NBTA. Actively engaged in the plaintiff’s trial bar, D’Amore is a national Board Member, Executive Committee member, and current Budget Chair of the American Association for Justice (AAJ) in Washington, D.C., Past President of the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association and a member of ABOTA. D’Amore has been selected to the Top 50 Super Lawyers in Oregon for several years including 2020.
About D’Amore Law Group
Since 1992, the D’Amore Law Group has represented thousands of injury victims and their loved ones in Oregon, Washington and California in various complex and catastrophic personal injury matters. Founder Tom D’Amore is dedicated to asserting the rights of clients who have been seriously injured by the negligence and intentional conduct of individual and corporate wrongdoers. The firm handles a wide variety of personal injury and wrongful death cases, in areas including automobile and trucking accidents, motorcycle and bicycle accidents, nursing home and medical negligence, sexual abuse, construction accidents and job site injuries, class action suits and bad faith insurance practices. The firm has locations for meeting clients in Portland, Lake Oswego, and Bend, Oregon, as well as in Vancouver, Washington. For more information, please visit www.damorelaw.com.
