Serpe Andrews is proud to announce that following an 8-day jury trial in a wrongful death case, the jurors of the 334th Judicial District Court of Harris County, Texas, with Judge Dawn Rogers presiding, rendered a defense verdict in favor of a construction company, and its driver.
This case was brought by the Decedent’s common law husband and two adult children. Decedent, a pedestrian, ran in front of the construction company’s vehicle as the driver was exiting Interstate 10 resulting in the Decedent’s death. Plaintiffs alleged that the construction company’s driver’s negligence contributed to the incident. Specifically, Plaintiffs claimed the driver was traveling at an unsafe speed and failed to take appropriate evasive action to avoid the Decedent in the road. Additionally, Plaintiffs asserted various derivative negligence claims against the construction company because of its ownership of the vehicle and the driver’s employment. Plaintiffs sought damages in excess of $40,000,000.
The trial team consisted of John Serpe, Christopher Knudsen, Adam Taylor, and Leonard Lynce, Jr., along with appellate counsel Jessica Barger and Brian Cathey of Wright, Close, Barger & Guzman. The defense team argued that the Decedent was the proximate cause of the accident. The Decedent’s actions were dangerous and reckless and placed the construction company’s driver in an impossible situation in which there was no opportunity to take evasive action. In 3 hours, the jurors returned a defense verdict, answering that Decedent was the only party negligent in this case.
