Dead Man’s Act Leads To Not Guilty Verdict

Chicago office associate Patrick Wall successfully defended the estate of a deceased motorist who had been sued for permanent and debilitating injuries which affected her daily living.  The plaintiff alleged at the time of the accident that the deceased motorist proceeded across a through street after stopping at a stop sign  and negligently collided with the plaintiff.  The plaintiff alleged that the defendant failed to yield the right-of-way and was not in control of his car while crossing the street.  Subsequent to the accident, the defendant died of unrelated causes. 

 

The plaintiff alleged permanent residual migraine headaches and upper extremity radicular symptoms as well as soft tissue injuries.  Pat successfully moved to exclude the plaintiff’s testimony regarding the facts of the accident using the Dead Man’s Act.  Further, Pat utilized the Dead Man’s Act and Illinois case law to bar the responding police officer’s opinion testimony as it related to the point of impact and all accident reconstruction.  This left the police officer only able to testify as to the defendant’s statements, which did not demonstrate negligence.  The plaintiff was left with the officer’s visual observations at the scene of the accident, which was insufficient to show liability.  At the conclusion of trial, the plaintiff requested approximately $550,000 arguing that the Plaintiff suffered life-altering injuries.  The jury deliberated for less than an hour and returned a verdict of Not Guilty in favor of the deceased motorist,awarding no damages to the Plaintiff.