The Supreme Court of Texas on Friday, June 27, reversed a lower court’s $90 million verdict against Werner Enterprises (CCJ Top 250, No. 14) and a driver in a case over a fatal 2014 crash.
In that crash, “the driver of a pickup truck traveling too fast on an icy, divided interstate highway suddenly lost control, hurtled across a 42-foot-wide median, and collided with the defendant’s 18-wheeler before the defendant had time to react,” the Texas Supreme Court said in its opinion. “The collision killed one of the pickup’s occupants and severely injured three others.”
Werner has maintained for a decade that its driver, Shiraz Ali, bore no blame in a crash that he could not have avoided. Yet a Houston jury in 2018 found Werner liable for the crash, awarding the family of the victims $89.7 million. Attorneys for the plaintiffs in that case argued the driver, Ali, should have pulled off of Interstate 20 due to the icy conditions, and blamed Werner for not instructing Ali to avoid the highway due to poor driving conditions.
The jury in the initial trial determined that, “if not for the 18-wheeler’s speed, which was below the speed limit but still unsafe for the icy conditions, the accident likely would not have occurred or the injuries would have been less severe,” the Supreme Court's opinion added. “We must conclude, however, that this proof is insufficient to establish that the defendant’s negligence was a substantial factor in bringing about the plaintiffs’ injuries.”
The jury in that initial trial found Werner and Ali liable for the crash. It apportioned 70% of the responsibility for causing the victims’ injuries to Werner employees other than Ali, 14% to Ali, and 16% to the pickup truck driver, Trey Salinas.
[Related: Oral arguments in nuclear Werner crash fatality case begin in Texas Supreme Court]
Werner and Ali appealed the verdict, challenging the legal and factual sufficiency of the jury’s negligence liability finding against Ali, the legal and factual sufficiency of the jury’s negligence liability findings against Werner, and more. An en banc court of appeals affirmed the district court’s judgement, which Werner and Ali appealed to the state’s Supreme Court.
Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock said in the court’s opinion that the Werner truck’s presence on the highway and its speed “furnished the condition that made the injuries possible, but it did not proximately cause the injuries.”
"This awful accident happened because an out-of-control vehicle suddenly skidded across a wide median and struck the defendant’s truck, before he had time to react, as he drove below the speed limit in his proper lane of traffic," Blacklock wrote.
“Rather, the sole proximate cause of this accident and these injuries – the sole substantial factor to which the law permits assignment of liability – was the sudden, unexpected hurtling of the victims’ vehicle into oncoming highway traffic, for which the defendants bore no responsibility."
The court concluded, ultimately, that “evidence of substantial-factor causation was legally insufficient. The sole substantial factor explaining why the accident happened was Salinas losing control of his pickup and crossing in front of the 18-wheeler. Ali’s negligence if any was too attenuated to constitute a substantial factor. There were no viable liability theories against Werner that were independent of Ali’s responsibility for the accident, so Werner and Ali were entitled to rendition of judgment.”
The court, therefore, reversed the decisions of the district and appellate courts.
In a dissenting opinion, Texas Supreme Court Justice Jane Bland agreed with the decision to reverse the judgement but dissented against rendering judgement for Werner and Ali. Bland concluded that the jury charge was erroneous and that the jury was misled into placing disproportionate responsibility on Ali and Werner. She contended, however, that there was evidence that Ali bore some responsibility for the victims’ injuries. Her dissent would have also reversed the judgement but also remanded for a new trial instead of ruling in favor of Werner and Ali.
[Related: Werner to appeal $90M verdict in 2014 crash lawsuit]
