A jury awarded $10.5 million Monday to a Fresno woman who suffered severe brain injuries after her car was struck by a dump truck driven by a drunk employee of DAV Charities of Central California.
The verdict in favor of Maria Blanca Lopez and her family was one of the largest jury awards in Fresno County history. It signals that the Central Valley has begun to recognize that such cases deserve large monetary awards, said one local attorney.
On the morning of June 9, 2007, employee Jesus Chavez Ramirez was driving a dump truck used to transport furniture and clothing for the Disabled Veterans of America charity when he ran a stop sign at the intersection of Church and Valentine avenues southwest of Fresno, said the plaintiff's attorney, Roger Dreyer. The 20,000-pound truck, which was traveling at 25 to 30 mph, broadsided Lopez's car, he said.
On the morning of June 9, 2007, a 20,000-pound truck driven by an employee of DAV Charities of Central California broadsided Maria Blanca Lopez's car southwest of Fresno.
Ramirez had a blood-alcohol level of 0.08%, the legal limit. Dreyer said Ramirez had been drinking the night before and was drunk when he arrived at work, but was still allowed to operate the dump truck.
Ramirez pleaded guilty in November to driving under the influence and was sentenced to one year in jail, Dreyer said.
Lopez, a 57-year-old mother and grandmother who worked a minimum-wage job at a 99 Cents store, suffered severe brain injuries, Dreyer said. In court documents, he said Lopez has been "institutionalized" in hospitals and nursing facilities since the accident.
"Her life has and will never be the same," Dreyer wrote. "Her memory and ability to interact with the world have been taken from her. ... She lies in bed and watches television without sound with the hope that one of her excruciatingly painful headaches will not start. She prays and asks for help."
The verdict comes after a monthlong trial in Fresno County Superior Court. The jury found that DAV Charities was responsible for $4 million in past and future medical expenses for Lopez and an additional $6.5 million for pain and suffering.
"Obviously it is a representation of what this community values the quality of life to be," said Dreyer, who works for a law firm with offices in Fresno and Sacramento. He said the jury award "is a very positive number, but no amount of money compensates the loss."
Neither Ramirez nor representatives of DAV Charities could be reached to comment late Monday.
Veteran Fresno civil attorney Warren Paboojian, who was not involved in the Lopez case, said the award is one of the largest ever in the central Valley.
"It's obvious that it was a serious injury, and there was good lawyering," he said. "These kind of verdicts are not uncommon in Northern California and Southern California. Fresno juries are just catching up to what these cases are worth."
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