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$6.3M Recovery Following Verdict: It was a normal summer morning in East Falls, Philadelphia for our client and his work partner. Both of their work vehicles were parked in tandem, one in front of the other, along the curb. In the lead vehicle, our client stepped out to retrieve something from the trunk when disaster struck—an impaired driver collided with the rear vehicle, forcing it forward into our client and pinning him between the two vehicles. His catastrophic injuries, in those moments, were life-threatening, and it was an unknown good samaritan who likely saved his life by stopping at the scene of the accident and applying a tourniquet on his leg.
A nearby neighbor, along with our client’s work partner, sprung into action and called 911. The good samaritan instructed the neighbor to keep our client awake until EMS arrived, while the work partner ensured the injured and incoherent driver didn’t leave the scene of the accident. When EMS and the fire department made it to the accident, it took them half an hour to separate our client from the vehicle to ensure they didn’t cause more injury or worse, death, when they removed him from the wreckage.
While our client began his long and excruciating hospital stay, his brothers sought help from one of the top law firms in the country, and it was attorney Andrea Sasso who took the call. While the brothers admitted they had been turned down by other firms, Sasso suspected there was more to the story than what other firms had seen. And after an hour and a half of speaking with the client’s brothers at a diner, she knew her suspicions were correct.
“The driver, who had been under the influence of a mixture of Xanax and Benadryl, had been charged with and pled guilty to Driving Under the Influence, Aggravated Assault by Vehicle while DUI, Simple Assault, and Recklessly Endangering Another Person. He paid the price of his choices. But there was one thing that hadn’t been acknowledged—he had been sent home by his employer. It was this fact that I knew we needed to hone in on for two reasons. First, because the driver was a temporary employee, the drive to and from work was considered part of his employment. Meaning, he was on the job when he was driving from his home to the worksite. This made the temporary employer liable for the drive. Secondly, had the driver not been sent home by his supervisor because he was visibly intoxicated, he wouldn’t have been operating a motor vehicle, and he wouldn’t have been in a position to change my client’s life forever,” Sasso explains. But this wasn’t the only opportunity she recognized as she learned more about the case.
Placement agencies, like the one that placed the driver with his temporary employer, are required to provide the same training to temporary employees as they do to full-time employees. This includes safety and controlled substance training that covers heavy machinery operations and the dangers of taking contraindicated medications. “After an expert investigation and testimony from the driver, we discovered that these training and safety protocols had never been in place. The driver had never been provided education to ensure that an event like this wouldn’t happen. This made the placement agency liable for what happened to our client as well. Ultimately, the failings of the placement agency, coupled with the failure of the temporary employer, led to the driver operating his vehicle that day. In the end, these companies were all responsible for what happened to my client.”
With their case established, Sasso and lead trial attorney Kevin O’Brien quickly filed suit, but their time to trial was delayed significantly. The defendants tried to get the case thrown out multiple times, and on each occasion the team at Stampone O’Brien Dilsheimer Holloway won with the facts that supported their case. In the end, the judge rightly let the case go to trial, and O’Brien and Sasso were able to present evidence of their negligence to the jury.
Before trial, the settlement was reached with several Defendants. However, the primary defendants refused to settle, which allowed our attorneys to present several key witnesses, including top-rated experts to address both liability and damages issues at the time of trial.
“This wasn’t a car accident where a driver sneezed and hit the person in front of them. This was a series of events that led to a catastrophe. There had been no safety training from the placement agency and the temporary employer where the driver was placed failed to take into account that a dangerous situation in the workplace also translated to a dangerous situation behind the wheel of a motor vehicle when sending their impaired employee home. Ultimately, had the driver been given the proper education, he might have looked up the side effects or known the interactions. And if he hadn’t, the temporary employer could have easily called him a ride service to get him home safely. My client paid the price for these businesses’ negligence—and those are the facts we presented to the jury.”
O’Brien spent a large portion of the trial educating the jury on just how injured our client had been and still is. The injuries he sustained had a far-reaching impact, which medical, vocational, and quality-of-life experts substantiated. Our client can never work in the trades again. He cannot walk without aid, and he cannot walk for any duration of time. He has excruciating chronic pain that will only worsen with age. Likely, he will face additional surgeries as a result of what occurred on that summer morning. And those outline only the physical and vocational impacts—the emotional devastation went even deeper. He deals with depression, anxiety, and PTSD every day of his life. Due to the malformation of his leg, he’s embarrassed to wear shorts or go to the gym. “This information is all part of the facts we explained to the jury, and the jury listened. In the end, they found the companies in this case 95% liable for what happened to my client, and awarded him over $5 million to help him with future living and medical expenses.”
Sasso adds, “Through it all, our client’s family kept saying the same thing—the right thing is going to happen for their brother. From the beginning, several things came together to save his life and support his case against his negligent employers. It started with the good samaritan who saved our client by applying the tourniquet. Then, he had one of the top surgeons in the country on shift when he was brought into Temple University Hospital. We also had a detail-oriented police officer who had the foresight to question the intoxicated driver and verify his story—that he had been sent home by his employer because he was visibly impaired.” She adds, “Their faith in their brother and the Stampone O’Brien Dilsheimer Holloway team never waivered—they knew we would get the justice our client deserved from all responsible parties.”
If you or a loved one have been the victim of another person or business’s negligence, we’re ready to fight for you too. Our consultations are free, and we’re ready to help you get the compensation you deserve.
