City of Gainesville, d/b/a Gainesville Regional Utilities v. Jacob T. Rodgers
After a $114 million verdict (remitted to a final judgment of $18.3 million) against the City for its employee's negligent driving, the First DCA held the trial court abused its discretion in denying a new trial because the jury's finding of zero comparative fault by the unbelted plaintiff and the speeding driver was against the manifest weight of unrebutted expert testimony, compounded by plaintiff's counsel's closing argument implying no fault because no statute requires backseat belt use. The court affirmed that its earlier per curiam affirmance of the denial of summary judgment on sovereign immunity became law of the case, barring re-litigation of scope of employment.
Key facts
- City of Gainesville, through its Gainesville Regional Utilities, employed a driver whose vehicle struck a car driven by Jacob T. Rodgers, who was an unbelted backseat passenger in the host vehicle.
- The jury returned a $114 million verdict against the City, which the trial court remitted to $18.3 million; the jury found zero comparative fault for both Rodgers and the host driver despite expert testimony that Rodgers's failure to wear a seat belt caused his paraplegia and the host driver's speeding contributed to the crash.
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Why it matters
A rare reversal of a denial of new trial on manifest-weight grounds in a catastrophic-injury case, with a detailed roadmap for arguing that a zero-comparative-fault verdict cannot stand where defense expert causation… — full analysis with a trial
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