The common joke, shared by those
in the legal profession and out of it, is that juries aren’t made up of
particularly smart people. It’s probably a joke that is about as common as
someone trying to get out of jury duty in weird ways. When a jury panel is
called, the point is to get a relevant cross section of the population, and
anyone who has gone through voir dire can probably confirm that the opinions and
abilities of jurors vary wildly across a panel. But just how far can a lawyer
go before they go too far in their argument, before they make an argument that
no jury can really buy?
An
attorney in Georgia apparently decided to test that theory. The case was a
wrongful death action, in which a man out for a walk was killed by a semi
truck. The driver of the semi truck had passed out prior to the accident. The
defense decided to argue that the passing out of the driver was an “Act of God”.
An “Act of God” is considered a legal defense, and can be used effectively in a
variety of cases if the situation is correct. However, even the statute lists
examples of what might qualify as an “Act of God”. Most notably mentioned in
that list would be a lightening strike or the “’perils
of the sea.’” Note that a truck driver passing out behind the wheel is not
one of the listed events.
What makes this
defense even more weird is the fact that the truck driver had a host of medical
issues before the accident, including
throat cancer, COPD, arthritis, and pneumonia. In fact, the truck driver
died just a mere seven months after the accident took place, at the age of 77. Further,
it appears that the truck driver made
a mistake and did not list several of his medications or conditions on his
Department of Transportation questionnaire, which not only did the defense know
about, but they further said that those conditions and medications had no
affect on the 77 year old’s ability to drive that day. Of course, according to
the defense, it was an “Act of God” that caused the driver to pass out, not the
age of the driver, the host of serious medical conditions, or the numerous
medications he was on.
The jury was unconvinced
by the argument, and in two separate half hour deliberations awarded a total of
$21,000,000 to the plaintiff. This case really stands as a testament as to what
a lawyer may think they will be able to get away with at trial. Maybe this was
just the last resort defense, or maybe the client refused to settle, and they
were forced to go to trial. But regardless of the reasoning, this was the
defense that was presented. It may be that juries do get a bad rap for their
understanding of legalese and complex legal concepts, but it does seem that, at
least in this case, it did not take an “Act of God” to show the jury that the
Plaintiff was in the right.
No comments:
Post a Comment