Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani attorneys John T. Eads, III and Cara M. Swindlehurst successfully pursued appellate action reaffirming the jury’s verdict after the trial court ordered a new trial in the Michigan Court of Appeals.
The plaintiff is a non-verbal autistic minor (age 13 at the time) that was physically assaulted by another special needs minor on the client’s school transportation bus. The plaintiff, through his mother and Next of Friend filed suit, alleging that because of the incident, the minor regressed tremendously, causing both economic and non-economic damages.
Following a seven-day trial where at the conclusion, the plaintiff counsel requested non-economic and economic damages in excess of $11,000,000, the jury came back with $10,000 in non-economic damages, and $0 in economic damages. Following motion practice to enter the judgment and for sanctions of attorneys’ costs and fees where the plaintiff rejected a prior mediation award of $100,000, the trial court ordered a new trial was warranted. Eads and Swindlehurst filed an application for leave to the Michigan Court of Appeals, which was granted.
The appellate court relied on expert testimony provided by the defense team, as well as testimony elicited on cross-examination of the minor’s teachers and therapy providers in determining there was sufficient evidence for the jury’s verdict. John T. Eads, III argued the case and the Court of Appeals agreed with his arguments and those in the briefing, finding that the trial court abused its discretion in ordering a new trial. Eads and Swindlehurst will now move forward with post-judgment sanctions for attorney fees that far exceed the $10,000 jury verdict.