Defense Wins! Personal Injury Case in Chattanooga

Dec 22, 2014

In this personal injury case, Plaintiff was struck by the Defendant’s automobile in the parking lot of a Texas Roadhouse restaurant in Chattanooga. The Defendant, Richard Alexander was driving with his family through the parking lot when he struck the Plaintiff. Her version of the accident was that Alexander suddenly veered to the left as he approached the rear of the parking lot, while Alexander testified that Gentry walked out from behind a parked car directly into the side of this vehicle. It was undisputed that Plaintiff struck the left front portion of the Alexander vehicle. She testified that because of her martial arts training she leaped into the air and pirouetted just before impact, striking the driver’s side mirror and driver window with both the front and back of her head before she landed without falling. Plaintiff conceded that she had suffered a traumatic brain injury over twenty years beforehand and that she had been in multiple other accidents, but she claimed that this accident exacerbated her traumatic brain injury that prevented her from working and cost her a gubernatorial appointment. She initially sued for $1 million but later amended to increase her ad damnum to $2.4 million. Plaintiff was treated by multiple doctors in Tennessee, Virginia and Pennsylvania. A neuropsychiatrist from Richmond, Virginia traveled to Tennessee to testify live at trial and opined that her fragile brain was permanently damaged by this accident and that she likely will never be able to work again.

After a two and a half day trial the jury found both parties equally at fault and thus returned a defense verdict. No appeal was filed.