Georgia Appeals Court Upholds $12M Verdict for Interstate Accident

[mavera]

Today, the Georgia Court of Appeals upheld an Atlanta jury verdict for
$12 million on behalf of the Zegel family represented by Avera & Smith
and Gorby Peters of Atlanta, GA.

On May 11th, 2007 Bill and Sonja Zegel, with their daughter Lillian,
were traveling on Interstate 75 in a construction area near Tifton, GA
when their Toyota Prius was violently struck from behind by a semi
tractor trailer operated by PN Express of Illinois and driven by Mr.
Surlina. All three suffered very serious injuries with Sonja
suffering the worst injuries of all.

Even though Surlina knew the manager of PN, Mr. Soldat, and testified
that he had been hired by Soldat on May 1st to run cargo for PN under
an oral leasing contract, PN and its insurance company tried to
convince an Atlanta jury otherwise. Evidence was produced at trial
that PN Express provided Surlina with placards and its DOT number to
run the routes, PN Express continued to deny that it was responsible
for anything claiming that Surlina was not hired until May 18th. At
the time of the crash, Surlina, who owned the tractor but not the
trailer, had PN’s name and DOT numbers painted on the truck. PN and
its insurance company continued at trial to deny that Surlina was
driving even when cell phone records showed that between May 1st and
11th, Surlina and PN Express employees were in daily contact.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations require a company to be fully
responsible for any negligence of a driver that it hires or leases.
Those regulations also require that each and every trucking company
maintain a driver qualifications file for each driver that is employed
by the company or works for the company as an independent owner
operator, such as Surlina.

Although the driver qualification file of Surlina would have provided
evidence of Surlina’s hire date, PN had lost the driver qualification
file.

The Zegel family retained Avera & Smith to assist them. Mary Donne
Peters and Mike Gorby, of Gorby Peters in Atlanta were called by Mark
Avera and Rod Smith to assist with the case as the trial would take
place in Atlanta. Ms. Peters and Mr Gorby handled the entire trial
and succeeded in obtaining a $12 million dollar verdict on behalf of
the family after a week long trial. PN Express appealed the verdict
to the Georgia Court of Appeals who, today, affirmed the verdict in
favor of the Zegel family.

The Zegel family has been thru an ordeal beyond description. Avera &
Smith is proud to stand with them, together with Gorby Peters, to hold
accountable those who break the rules and refuse to accept
responsibility for their actions in the face of overwhelming evidence.

In trucking cases where innocent family members are horribly injured
or killed by a driver or company’s refusal to follow the rules, this
case is another reminder of the importance of the Federal Motor
Carrier Safety Rules.