Patton & Ryan

Markham v Vancura
Circuit Court of Winnebago County, Illinois

Patton & Ryan continues to excel at trial. Dave Ryan and Fernando Bustamante recently received a verdict of no liability for our clients, a gasoline tanker trucking company from Wisconsin and its driver, in a wrongful death action in the Circuit Court of Winnebago County, Rockford, Illinois. This was a head-on collision between plaintiff’s passenger car and our client’s gasoline tanker truck, at 6:00 am in rural Winnebago County. Our client’s semi-tractor tanker was inspected after the accident and found to have 2 bad brakes, and the road conditions were adverse. Plaintiffs presented the testimony of an Illinois State Trooper who inspected the brakes and testified that the bad brakes existed before the accident. Plaintiff also presented the testimony of 2 retained expert witnesses who said our driver was going too fast for conditions and that he could have stopped before he reached the collision point, if he had good brakes. Overcoming this adverse testimony, we focused the case on the real issues, which were the fact that the plaintiff’s decedent hit a patch of snow/ice, which had blown onto the road from the adjacent fields, and lost control of her car, sliding into our driver’s lane. We presented evidence that our driver had properly slowed down when he recognized a hazard, slammed on his brakes and kept his truck under control, to try to avoid the accident. The decedent was a 26 year old woman who was survived by 2 minor children. In his closing argument, Plaintiff’s attorney asked for $3 million. The jury returned its verdict of no liability in 20 minutes.