Baltimore woman wins $729K after collision at light

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Aug 17, 2009 by Caryn Tamber

A Baltimore jury has awarded more than $1 million to a woman whose leg was badly injured in a collision between her car and a gasoline tanker.

Shannon Brown had her infant son, Elijah, in the back of her Buick sedan on July 13, 2006, when it struck an Eastern Petroleum truck driven by Mark G. Miller. Brown's son was unhurt, but Brown suffered a crush fracture in her right leg and now has 18 screws and a plate in her ankle, said one of her lawyers, John B. Bratt. She has scarring, may need more surgery, and she always will limp, he said.

Bratt, of Miller & Zois LLC in Glen Burnie, said that some witnesses testified that the truck driver, Miller, ran a red light at Pennington Avenue and Church Street in Curtis Bay, while other witnesses testified that the trucker had a green light.

"In our opinion, we think this is one of the most difficult types of case to try because there were liability witnesses on both sides," said Bratt, who handled the case with Laura G. Zois. "This is the type of case that goes to trial."

Mark Miller is not related to Miller & Zois partner Ronald V. Miller.

Deborah K. Besche of Goldberg, Pike & Besche P.C. in Baltimore, who represented defendants Miller and Eastern Petroleum, did not return a call for comment.

The jury returned its $1,063,000 verdict last Tuesday in Baltimore City Circuit Court after hearing three days of testimony and deliberating for less than an hour, Bratt said. $1 million was for non-economic damages and the rest was for past medical expenses.

The verdict is subject to the statutory cap on non-economic damages, which knocks it down to about $729,000, Bratt said.

A negligent entrustment claim against the trucking company was dismissed before trial.

The defendants had made a pretrial settlement offer of $25,000, Bratt said.

After speaking to the jurors after the verdict, Bratt said, he concluded that they sided with Brown based on her credibility and that of another witness -- a boy, 11 years old at the time of the crash, who testified that the truck had run the red light.

Bratt said Brown is a single mother and a college student and that the verdict will give her "some security for her and her son."

"It sounds like just a leg but it really isn't," he said. "She got hurt pretty bad. ... This is something that's going to be with her forever."