Sacramento Attorneys Pete Dye and Sharee Hess Secure Defense Verdict
Peter Dye and Sharee Hess obtained a complete defense verdict from a jury in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Plaintiff claimed she was in her husband’s vehicle when it was struck by a forklift while being loaded with 1000 lbs of sand by the forklift driver of a well-known Fortune 50 company. The defense conceded that its forklift contacted the bumper of the truck, but disputed that Plaintiff was in the vehicle based upon the statements of two employees involved in the incident. Prior to trial, Plaintiff claimed over $775,000 in past medical treatment related to this incident, more than $1 million in future medical care, and substantially more in past and future pain and suffering.
By bifurcating the trial between liability and damages, Peter and Sharee avoided having to call all of plaintiff’s treating physicians and all but one expert, shortened the trial by weeks, and focused the trial on just the testimony of the four percipient witnesses as to the issue of whether plaintiff was in the vehicle. In the end, it took 9 out of 12 jurors 45 minutes to conclude that that the testimony of the two employees was more credible than the testimony of plaintiff and her husband.
Congratulations to Pete and Sharee on a job well done.