Werner Earns Review of $100M Verdict by Texas High Court

Werner has maintained that its driver could not have avoided the 2014 crash and was not at fault. (Werner Enterprises via Facebook)

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The Texas Supreme Court has granted Werner Enterprises’ petition for review of a $100 million lower-court verdict involving a 2014 fatal crash that has lingered in the Texas courts for years. The state’s highest court has scheduled oral arguments for Dec. 3.

Werner last year filed the request for review after a state appeals court upheld the large lower-court verdict that a Houston jury awarded during a 2018 trial. The appeals court ruling last year prompted the state Supreme Court appeal.

The 2014 crash at the center of the litigation occurred when a pickup truck driven by a friend of the plaintiff lost control on a slick interstate, traveled across the highway median and collided with a Werner tractor traveling on the opposite stretch of road.

Werner has maintained that its driver could not have avoided the crash and was not at fault.

But despite the Werner truck being hit by a vehicle that crossed the median, the Texas jury in the 2018 trial was instructed that it could apply a “proximate cause” legal standard in the case. A proximate cause is defined as a partial cause that was a substantial factor in bringing about an injury, and without which such injury would not have occurred. The court ruled that there was sufficient evidence to support a finding that insufficient training and supervision “proximately caused the collision.”

The crash resulted in the death of 7-year-old Zackery Blake, catastrophic permanent injuries to 12-year-old Brianna Blake, significant injuries to 14-year-old Nathan Blake and the Blake children’s mother, Jennifer Blake.

Werner objected to the jury’s finding that the driver and company were negligent, and also to the court judge’s decision to allow certain evidence in the case. Additionally, Werner objected to the jury’s award of future medical care expenses for the plaintiffs.

In a court pleading, Werner also noted the conditions under which the crash occurred.

“At the time of this accident, [driver] Shiraz Ali was proceeding in his lane, in control of a Werner tractor-trailer and well below the speed limit, when the [plaintiff’s] vehicle suddenly careened into his path, leaving him no time to avoid a collision.”

Despite this, the lower court jury found both Werner and Ali liable and assessed the award, according to court documents.

Werner first appealed the jury verdict in October 2018 to the Texas Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston. That appeal ultimately was denied in a 5-4 decision last year after languishing in the legal system.

Werner then filed an appeal with the Texas Supreme Court last year.

Recognizing the potential significance of the Werner case outcome, supporters filing legal briefs with the Texas Supreme Court have ranged from Texas Trucking Association and American Trucking Associations to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Texas Civil Justice League.

“In recent years, trucking companies have faced a growing trend of so-called ‘nuclear verdicts’ in highway accident litigation — verdicts that are not only shockingly large, but which, like the verdict here, are fundamentally unfair in that they are untethered to the realities of the case,” ATA wrote in a brief filed with the high court last month.

“And in recent years, the Texas trend has been particularly alarming,” ATA wrote. “The issues presented in this case relate directly to that trend, because such verdicts are closely associated with improper and nebulous theories of liability and the improper practice of ‘trying the company’ in negligence cases — even when an employer concedes vicarious liability.”

“What this court decides about this case has immense real-world consequences,” the Texas Civil Justice League wrote last month. “ At some time or another, virtually every Texas business operates a commercial motor vehicle. The spectacle offered by some attorney television advertising would have us believe that huge profit-over-people entities are unleashing on helpless Texans’ fleets of poorly maintained tractor-trailers operated by untrained, unsupervised, and dangerous drivers hired off the street.

“The reality could not be more different. Texas businesses of all shapes and sizes take vehicle safety extremely seriously, not only because it is the right thing to do, but because they know that they, too, could become the target of plaintiff’s attorney well schooled in reptile theory, whether they could have done anything to prevent an accident or not.”

Werner ranks No. 16 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America and No. 30 on the TT Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies.