The Texas Supreme Court will hear an appeal by Werner Enterprises of a nuclear verdict that carries a more than $100 million price tag.
The court on Friday said it would accept Werner’s appeal of a May 2023 Court of Appeals decision handed down by a split en banc panel. Oral arguments in the case will be heard Dec. 3.
The Court of Appeals upheld a lower court verdict from May 2018. That judgment of almost $90 million was described by Werner at the time as the largest judgment against it in the truckload carrier’s history. Since then, interest charges have taken the final sum to more than $100 million.
There has been no substantive disagreement about what happened in the case, which is focused on a fatal accident that occurred after Christmas in 2014 on Interstate 20 near Odessa, Texas.
Freezing rain and black ice were the culprits in the crash that killed a child of Jennifer Blake, who was in a car with her three children that was driven by Trey Salinas. Another child was left a quadriplegic, and a third had significant injuries that were not life-threatening. Blake suffered injuries as well.
A Werner driver, Shiraz Ali, was driving in the opposite direction. With the bad weather conditions, Salinas lost control of the car, crossed the median strip and hit Ali’s truck head-on.
The lower court decision, which came from a jury trial, found Werner liable for several reasons. Among them: Ali had not reduced his speed adequately given the weather – the reasoning being that if he had been going slower, he wouldn’t have been where he was when Blake’s car crashed into his truck – and that he was not permitted to operate his CB radio, which might have better warned him of road conditions.
While the lower court found Werner bore most of the blame, the Court of Appeals in its decision also not spare the truckload carrier either. “Under the circumstances, the risk was astonishingly high that a newly trained 18-wheeler driver who was not trained to drive in winter weather would cause serious death or injury if confronted with a traffic scenario requiring quick reactions while traveling at approximately 50 miles per hour on a Texas highway with black ice, freezing rain, and freezing temperatures during a National Weather Service Winter Storm Warning, particularly when the driver (1) did not have (a) information from Werner regarding the conditions on his anticipated or known route, or (b) access to readily acquirable devices that facilitated the detection of conditions giving rise to black ice (like a CB radio or OAT gauge); (2) was considered a student driver with the second-lowest possible evaluation score; and (3) was assigned a high-pressure just in time delivery.”
In the primary apportionment of blame, Werner was hit with 70%, Ali with 14% and Salinas with the remainder.
The lower court case was heard in the 127th District Court in Harris County, where Houston is located.
In its most recent 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Werner said it had maximum liability for the verdict of $10 million despite the total size of the verdict, though it also said it was liable for post-judgment interest. Its total liability coverage, it said, exceeded the jury’s verdict amount.
However, it also said that as of June 30, it had recorded a liability of $41.3 million and that it had recorded a liability of $39.8 million at the end of 2023. But it also recorded a $79.2 million receivable reflecting payment from its insurance company.
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