Kallie Cox//August 30, 2024//
After nearly two years, a St. Charles man has obtained a $100,000 settlement resulting from a motor vehicle crash on a rural road.
The reason the litigation dragged on, his attorney Stephen Gerring said, is because the at-fault driver lied to his insurance company about driving for commercial purposes.
Gerring’s client was a passenger traveling on a rural St. Charles County road when another vehicle pulled out and hit them. In total four people were impacted by the crash, the at-fault driver and his wife, Gerring’s client and a passenger in the plaintiff’s car.
“The first offer was $20,000. The insurance company refused to consider his concussion and had a problem with their own insured,” Gerring told Missouri Lawyers Media. “There was also a witness that said the plaintiff’s car had a chance but failed to avoid the collision. This led to many months of litigation to determine who was telling the truth.”
Gerring’s client suffered injuries to his head, brain, neck, back, spine, shoulder, arm, elbow and wrist.
“This took a very long time, because the at-fault driver was a felon [who] had served time in prison for manslaughter and he told his insurance company initially that he was working […] for a delivery company called Spark Delivery through Walmart, and the adjuster additionally said, we’re going to deny coverage because he was using his car for a commercial purpose,” Gerring said.
However, Gerring was never sent a letter stating that. As the case remained in limbo, Gerring tried to obtain information from Spark Delivery to confirm the driver was working with them at the time of the accident. They were not helpful and Gerring filed suit to obtain a subpoena for the information, he said.
“The case eventually got split up between two separate firms that were handling liability for the insurance company on one end and then liability for maybe denying the coverage on the other end,” Gerring said.
Gerring confirmed that the witness in the case could not see his client’s vehicle before the crash because of a blind spot caused by the intersection’s topography. He also found that the defendant was not working for Spark Delivery.
The matter was settled out of court following discovery. Gerring’s client obtained a settlement of $100,000 with $25,454.6 in special damages.
- Amount of verdict, judgment or settlement: $100,000.
- Type of action: Motor vehicle collision
- Allocation of Fault: 100% on at fault driver
- Breakdown: $100,000 Third party claim
- Venue: Settled out of court
- Case Number/Date: 6/4/2024
- Judge: N/A
- Injuries: Head, brain, neck, back, spine, shoulder, arm, elbow, wrist, hand
- Special Damages: $25,454.69
- Insurer: N/A
- Caption: Confidential v. Confidential
- Plaintiffs’ Attorneys: Stephen Gerring, Gerring Injury Law
- Defendant’s Attorneys: N/A
This article credit to MOLawyersMedia