Phillips and Robinett Obtain Defense Verdict
On June 8, 2018, HAT attorneys Michael Phillips and Claire Robinett obtained a defense verdict in Scott County in a case involving two drivers alleging that the other crossed the center line on a two lane highway late at night. There was no dispute that while traveling northbound on two-lane Highway 35 plaintiff’s vehicle collided with the side of the trailer of defendant’s log truck which was traveling southbound on Highway 35. The plaintiff’s vehicle scraped the length of the log truck, spun out, and finally came to rest on the opposite side of Highway 35.
The plaintiff claimed that defendant driver negligently drifted across the centerline and into her northbound lane of traffic thereby causing the accident. Phillips and Robinett successfully established to the jury that just the opposite occurred, showing that it was the plaintiff who crossed the centerline of the road and caused the collision to take place in the log truck’s lane.
Phillips successfully cross examined the plaintiff’s accident reconstruction expert, James Hannah. The Defense also proved that the defendant driver took action to avoid the plaintiff’s vehicle by veering his truck onto the shoulder of Highway 35, and, in doing so, avoided a likely fatal, head-on collision.
After two days of trial the jury deliberated for ten minutes before returning their verdict.