Attorneys from the Houston office of Gordon & Rees secured a jury verdict recently for their client in a case tried in Judge Sylvia Matthews' 281st District Court in Harris County. Steve Selbe and Heidi Gumienny of the Tort & Product Liability Practice Group defended the City of Baytown and its driver in a lawsuit involving a four car automobile accident. The Plaintiff and a Co-Defendant contended that the accident had been initiated by the City driver while the City's position was that the Co-Defendant had been the total cause of the accident.
The Plaintiff sought nearly $80,000 in damages arising from the accident. After 4 hours of deliberations, in a 10-2 verdict, the Harris County jury found that the City driver was not negligent and that the Co-Defendant had been negligent. In addition, while the jury significantly reduced the Plaintiff's claimed damages, they awarded the City its complete property damage claim.
The verdict secured a complete victory for the Houston office's client and will result in a judgment in which the City pays nothing to the Plaintiff and recovers approximately $6,000 in property damages.