Attorney 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 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 week long trial included testimony by a total of 6 witnesses and concluded with a verdict on January 16, 2009.
The plaintiff alleged permanent residual migraine headaches and upper extremity radicular symptoms as well as soft tissue injuries. The defendant successfully moved to exclude the plaintiff’s testimony regarding the facts of the accident using the Dead Man’s Act. Further, Mr. Wall 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.
The Plaintiff presented four treating physicians who testified to the Plaintiff's injuries. Specifically, Mr. Wall contradicted 2 of the physicians testifying at trial with inconsistent testimony given at their depositions. 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 thereby awarding no damages to the Plaintiff. The Plaintiff brought a post trial motion alleging the verdict was against the manifest weight of the evidence. On April 24th, 2009, Judge Elrod denied the Plaintiff's Motion.
