August 29, 2019 – Attorney Jay Eidex tried a case in the State Court of Rockdale County involving unusual facts. The accident occurred on December 22, 2016 during the early morning hours when it was dark outside. The defendant was attempting to pull off of Highway 212 into the private drive of a hunting club. He missed the driveway which resulted in his Ford pickup truck getting stuck in a drainage ditch with the rear of his vehicle sticking out into the westbound traffic lane in a perpendicular manner. The Plaintiff alleged he was unable to see the Defendant’s disable vehicle until it was too late which caused him to strike the Defendant’s vehicle. There were no complaints of injury and no citation was issued at the scene of the accident. The Defendant contended that he activated his hazard lights upon his vehicle becoming disabled, but the Plaintiff contended that he never saw any hazard lights.
The Plaintiff claimed medical bills in excess of $61,000 and ;lost wages exceeding $40,000 resulting from injuries he alleged that were a result of the accident. At trial, Plaintiff called Dr. Shevin Pollydore to testify regarding causation of two lumbar herniated discs at L4-5 and L5-S1. The Defense called Dr. Barry Jeffries to rebut the causation findings of Dr. Pollydore. Both parties called expert accident reconstructionsists regarding the visibility, sight lines and ability to avoid a collision. On Cross Examination, the Plaintiff’s expert reconstructionist conceded that his math in calculating the perception reaction time and stopping distance may have been flawed.
The Plaintiff asked for the jury to award all of his past medical damages, lost wages and a multiple of those amounts for pain and suffering. The jury deliberated for approximately 5 hours before returning a defense verdict.,
The case is Michael David Cox v. James Edward Hospodarsky, State Court of Rockdale County, CAFN: 2017-SV-1454
