Jurimatic: Verdicts and Settlements

On November 26, 2022, Ryen Motzek was traveling eastbound in a designated bike lane on Eddy Street in San Francisco when he was struck by a 2021 Honda Accord. The vehicle, owned by Dwight Hall and operated by Kendu Bomani, caused Motzek to suffer severe bodily injuries requiring immediate and long-term medical intervention. Motzek filed suit (Case No. CGC24611404) alleging both the driver's negligence and the owner’s negligent entrustment of the vehicle. Although the defense initially contested the allegations—citing contributory negligence and the statute of limitations—the parties ultimately reached a $420,000 settlement. This award compensates the plaintiff for past and future medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering resulting from the collision.

A West Covina homeowner’s decision to skip building permits led to a $550,000 legal settlement after a guest suffered a life-altering fall. In October 2019, Dennis Brown visited the home of Victoria and Frank Fusaro at 1440 South Meeker Avenue. He stepped out onto a newly renovated patio, unaware that the recent construction work created a dangerous nine-inch vertical drop. The height discrepancy violated local building codes and lacked any visual warnings or handrails. This hazard caused Brown to lose his balance and strike the hard stone pavers with immense force. The resulting injuries inflicted immediate trauma and left Brown with permanent physical limitations. After Brown filed a premises liability claim in Los Angeles Superior Court, the parties reached a financial agreement to address his mounting medical bills and lost earning capacity.

Amelia Sellers and Christian Chico expected a routine evening when they visited the Greek Theatre in November 2021. They had just entered the area known as Lot H when a massive 90-foot Aleppo Pine tree suddenly uprooted and crashed onto them. The impact pinned both pedestrians to the ground and inflicted life-altering injuries that required immediate hospital intervention. Before the accident happened, the tree had reportedly shown signs of instability and root decay. The plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles, and ASM Global Theater Management. They alleged that the defendants failed to maintain the grounds and ignored a dangerous condition on public property. The defense initially argued that the collapse was an unforeseeable accident, but experts for the plaintiffs pointed to visible markers of neglect. Shortly before the trial began, the defendants agreed to a $1,150,000 settlement to resolve the claims and provide for the victims' future medical needs.

In the spring of 2022, Cenocore, Inc. prepared to expand its commercial footprint with the purchase of a property at 2700 E. Slauson Avenue in Huntington Park . To protect the $5 million asset, they hired Cal-Kor Insurance Services, an agency that boasted over 30 years of expertise in the Los Angeles market. However, the agency allegedly failed to secure a policy that met the lender's requirements or the building's actual replacement value. Most critically, the broker allowed a "Protective Safeguard Endorsement" to remain on the policy, which required an automatic sprinkler system that the building simply did not have. When a catastrophic fire leveled the structure on New Year’s Day 2023, the insurer threatened to deny the claim based on this impossible condition. Faced with a multi-million dollar coverage gap and a potential total loss of recovery, Cenocore sued for professional negligence . The legal battle concluded when the defendants agreed to a $2,400,000 settlement to resolve the claims of mismanagement and broker error.

A routine drive in Van Nuys turned into a life-altering disaster for brothers Stephen and Richard Paper when an LAPD cruiser slammed into their Toyota Camry at 80 miles per hour. The officer, a member of a street racing task force, had been traveling at nearly double the speed limit without his emergency lights or sirens activated. The impact was so severe that it launched the brothers' vehicle across the intersection of Balboa and Burbank Boulevards, striking multiple fixed objects before coming to a rest. Both brothers suffered catastrophic internal injuries and fractures that required extensive surgical intervention. While the City of Los Angeles initially raised defenses of comparative negligence, internal police records later confirmed that the crash was entirely avoidable had the officer maintained a safe speed. To avoid a jury trial, the City agreed to a historic $18,000,000 settlement to cover the brothers' lifelong medical expenses and trauma.

In August 2022, a routine visit to a Torrance parking lot ended in a fatal tragedy for Gary Ginn. While he was walking near Crenshaw Boulevard, Aileen Connett struck him with her Lexus GS350 while attempting a U-turn into a parking stall. Reports indicated that after the initial impact, the vehicle backed up and ran over Mr. Ginn a second time. The catastrophic injuries sustained during this double-impact incident led to his death twelve days later. His widow and four children filed a wrongful death lawsuit, alleging that the driver failed to maintain a proper lookout. Despite defense arguments suggesting the pedestrian shared responsibility for the accident, the parties reached a $10,000,000 settlement to resolve the claims of negligence and loss of companionship.

Jorge Solis Flores, a former employee of the renowned apple juice manufacturer S. Martinelli & Company, spearheaded a class-action lawsuit that exposed systemic payroll failures within the historic California brand. The litigation alleged that Martinelli failed to include performance bonuses and shift differentials when calculating the "regular rate of pay" for overtime and sick leave, a common but illegal practice that shortchanges hourly workers. Furthermore, the suit claimed that employees were frequently denied their legally mandated meal and rest periods without receiving the required premium pay. Facing a class of hundreds of current and former workers, Martinelli ultimately agreed to a $1,650,000 settlement to resolve the claims of labor code violations and unfair business practices. This recovery ensures that workers are retroactively compensated for the wages and penalties they were denied during their service to the company.

A Broward County jury returned a defense verdict in a motor vehicle collision lawsuit filed by Michael Taylor against Angel Manuel Santiago and Prospect Transportation, Inc. The Plaintiff alleged that Santiago negligently operated a company-owned vehicle that collided with his car on March 15, 2024, at 7105 W McNab Road. Taylor claimed permanent bodily injuries, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life. The defense denied negligence and raised comparative fault, pre-existing conditions, and Florida's permanent injury threshold as affirmative defenses. On December 5, 2025, the jury found that Santiago's negligence was not a legal cause of Taylor's injuries, ending the case in favor of the Defendants with no damages awarded.

Melinda Desiree Harris sought justice after a traumatic collision at the intersection of Taylor and Turk Streets in San Francisco. On September 19, 2021, Harris was riding an electric scooter when she was struck by a vehicle operated by Gresha Monae Brown. Harris alleged that the City and County of San Francisco maintained a "dangerous condition" at the intersection, citing poor lighting and inadequate road markings that contributed to the crash. While a jury eventually agreed that the public property was indeed in a dangerous state at the time of the incident, they ultimately concluded that this specific hazard was not a substantial factor in causing Harris’s injuries. As a result, the Court entered a verdict in favor of the City.

On May 3, 2021, Christopher Patrick Gilliland was traveling eastbound on University Boulevard in Jacksonville, Florida, when his vehicle was struck by a car driven by Kandie Melendez-Ortiz. The vehicle Melendez-Ortiz operated was owned by Duval Auto Sales LLC, which had granted her permission to drive it at the time of the collision. Gilliland filed suit in early 2023, alleging that the Defendants’ negligence caused him to suffer permanent bodily injuries, significant scarring, and a loss of earning capacity. Following a trial in the Fourth Judicial Circuit Court, the jury returned a verdict in December 2025 totaling $2,893,003.57. This award included over $2.2 million for past and future non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering and mental anguish.

A federal jury in Michigan delivered what is believed to be the largest civil jury verdict in state history, awarding Consumers Energy Company and DTE Electric Company $394,424,138 in damages against Toshiba America Energy Systems Corporation and Toshiba Corporation. The six-week trial centered on a botched $500 million overhaul of the Ludington Pumped Storage Plant, one of the world's largest hydroelectric facilities. The jury found Toshiba breached its contract by delivering defective work on critical turbine components, including discharge ring extensions that suffered cracking and degradation. The defects restricted two units to just 50 hours of annual operation and made the promised 30-year service life impossible. The jury rejected all of Toshiba's affirmative defenses and counterclaims, holding the contractor fully accountable for its failure to meet contractual standards.

The legal battle centered on Steve Ongele, a long-serving Bureau Chief within the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS). Ongele alleged that his career ended in retaliation after he blew the whistle on significant financial irregularities within the department. Specifically, Ongele had reported that the city was collecting millions of dollars in excessive fees from the public and had uncovered a scheme where ineligible high-level employees received years of unauthorized overtime pay. Following these disclosures, Ongele claimed he faced a hostile work environment and was ultimately terminated in October 2019. The resulting stress led to a severe decline in his mental and physical health, including suicidal ideation and permanent disability. While the City maintained that the termination was performance-based, they ultimately chose to settle the matter for $3.15 million shortly before trial, following the federal conviction of Ongele's former supervisor on unrelated corruption charges.