October 18, 2004


$4.7M VERDICT SHOWS LIMITS OF FIREFIGHTERS STATUS AS HEROES
$750,000 OFFERED AN HOUR BEFORE THE JURY CAME BACK


By Thomas B. Scheffey, The Connecticut Law Tribune


"I have lost a lot of money because I was greedy," admits plaintiffs' lawyer Michael A. Stratton, of New Haven's Stratton Faxon. "I've learned over time that, when a good, reasonable offer gets put on the table, you take it."


On Oct. 8, after a jury had been deliberating all day, the insurers of Prospect volunteer firefighter Shawn P. LaJoie increased Stratton's temptation to settle by suddenly tripling their best settlement offer to Stratton and his client, R. William Hunter. Hunter's the widower of Waterbury nurse Margaret Ann Hunter, who was struck and killed on a snowy March day in 2001 by a truck driven by LaJoie as he responded, blue light flashing, to a car fire.


Hunter and Faxon had been willing to settle for $1.5 million. Whether to take half that was Hunter's decision. He declined, telling Faxon he wanted to hear the jury say out loud who was to blame.


An hour later, the jury came back with a $5.2 million verdict.


OVERCOMING OBSTACLES


The jury attributed 25 percent of the negligence to Margaret Hunter. It gave her estate $420,000 in economic damages, $4.2 million in noneconomic damages, and $800,000 to William Hunter for loss of consortium. Offer of judgment interest boosted the estate's total to $4.7 million.


In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which dramatically highlighted the bravery of police and firefighters, it has been a real gamble to ask a jury to cast blame on these heroes. Stratton recalled a recent case in which the defendant was a policeman who allegedly failed to protect an accident scene. A truck hit electrical wires, pulling a utility pole down on his client, and destroying "10 to 15 percent of his frontal lobe," he said. "He looked terribly disfigured, but after the jury delivered a defendant's verdict, [jurors] went back into the hall and literally cheered. It was awful. They clearly felt they were supporting their American democracy by knocking us out of court."


In the Hunter case, all the eyewitnesses were either neighbors or friends of firefighter LaJoie, a handsome 24-year-old who sports a moustache. In his report to police, he said Mrs. Hunter pulled out from a church parking lot to his right when he was 20 feet away. Other witnesses said she sped up to get out of his way. Unfortunately, LaJoie pulled left, toward the oncoming lane, striking her broadside in that lane.


A state trooper's reconstruction of the crash concluded that, even if LaJoie hadn't been speeding at the 47 to 52 mph indicated by crush and momentum formulas, "the crash would still have occurred if [LaJoie] was traveling at 35 mph," the posted speed limit. However, the trooper also concluded that if LaJoie had aimed to the right he would have either sent Margaret Hunter's Subaru wagon into a counter-clockwise spin — or missed it completely.


LaJoie was not charged with any traffic violation, despite his admitted speeding. The trooper's report noted that Mrs. Hunter had four tickets in the past 20 months -- two for speeding and two for following too closely.


Stratton said he emphasized to the jury that LaJoie had "never been held accountable" for his role in the accident.


JUROR INSIGHT


After the verdict, defense lawyer Dennis Laccavole, of Bridgeport's Goldstein & Peck, left the courtroom to be with his client. Judge Thomas J. Corradino told the jurors they were free to talk with the lawyers, and Stratton spoke with them.

He found that LaJoie's closest peers -- men in their twenties -- had been his toughest critics, initially favoring 100 percent liability for the firefighter. Stratton said his jury picks favored people who had exercised a high level of personal responsibility in their lives. One 25-year-old male was raising a 10-year-old child, alone. Another was a "22-year-old who's father went to prison, and who had been basically supporting his family, and managed to go to Goucher College, all at the same time," said Stratton. "I thought these guys, even if the age and gender were the same, would not have affinity" with the defendant. "And that was true. They were the most condemning of his actions, very much bothered by the lack of any accountability."


The firefighters' insurance policy had a limit of $250,000. The fire department also had a $2 million policy that was issued by Volunteer Fire Insurance Services of York, Pa. A third policy, for $6 million, covered the town of Prospect, and was issued by St. Paul Insurance.


Stratton said the recalcitrant insurer was VFIS, because it could have met his client's $1.5M demands well within policy limits. "The interesting question is whether VFIS, the mid-level insurer, is going to be hammered [by St. Paul] for unfair settlement practices," said Stratton. "I think it's outrageous to have a case like this and offer so little. We gave them multiple chances to settle for their policy limits. They'll say you never would have gotten to our level if you'd made the appropriate offer. We'd offered to settle the case for $1.5 million."


VHIS, which is limited to police and firefighters' coverage, "hasn't been hit since 9/11 in any significant way," Stratton maintained.


The insurer's in-house lawyer, Raymond Fidler, said he had not heard about the Hunter verdict, and could not confirm whether juries found in favor of police and firefighters more after 9/11. He referred questions to its claims department, which didn't return telephone messages by press time. Laccavole also did not return repeated calls for comment.