Werner Enterprises, ending a saga that began with a terrible crash and a financial penalty that at the time in 2018 was considered the largest nuclear verdict against a trucking company in history, has prevailed on appeal in the Texas Supreme Court which reversed the earlier decision.
The case involved tragedy; the death of a child and his sister rendered a quadriplegic. But its details inflamed plenty of social media posts from drivers outraged at the facts of the collision, where a pickup truck carrying the Blake family went out of control, crossed an interstate median near Odessa, Texas and smashed into a Werner truck going the other way in icy conditions.
The court result was a verdict against Werner of almost $90 million, as a lower court jury found Werner negligent because its driver, Shariz Ali, was found to be going faster than a jury thought he should have been going. With interest, the judgment Werner faced had grown to well over $100 million.
The lower court split on liability was 70% to “Werner employees other than Ali,” 14% to Werner driver Shariz Ali, and 16% to Trey Salinas, who was behind the wheel of the pickup truck.
An en banc panel upheld the judgment in May 2023.
In overturning the lower court verdict and finding for Werner (NASDAQ: WERN), the state’s Supreme Court Friday recounted three salient facts about the crash: the pickup that was transporting the Blakes and driven eastbound by Trey Salinas on interstate 20 was traveling about 50 to 60 miles per hour; conditions were icy; Ali was driving the other way and was in training for Werner with his team driver–who was also his trainer–sitting in the sleeper berth when the crash occurred.
Salinas lost control of the pickup, careened across the median strip and slammed into the Werner truck. Testimony showed that Ali slammed on the brakes when he saw the pickup headed his way.
But the core of the jury verdict is that if Ali had been going even slower because of the poor weather, he would not have been where he was when the pickup crossed into westbound traffic, and the tragic outcome would not have occurred. Beyond the one death and the girl left a quadriplegic, two other members of the Blake family were injured. Salinas had minor injuries.
The state’s high court said that the Werner truck was in its “proper” lane of traffic and was traveling below the speed limit. Testimony showed he was traveling between 43 and 45 miles per hour at the time of the crash.
Ali’s speed “and even his presence on the ice road at all” was negligent, according to the Supreme Court. However, that negligence was a “but for” cause of the crash, according to the court.
The “principal theory” of the Blake’s legal case, according to the Supreme Court, is that “if Ali had not been driving too fast in the icy conditions, things would have turned out much differently for the Blakes.”
‘But-for’ versus substantial factor causation
The court said this was a “powerful line of argument.” But it only accounts for the Texas standard of “but-for causation.”
“It does not account for the requirement of substantial-factor causation, which we conclude is lacking here as a matter of law,” the Court wrote. And that is because the “sole substantial factor in bringing about this accident…was Salinas losing control.”
“Under the undisputed facts of this case, the Blakes’ injuries happened because Trey Salinas, in the course of two or three seconds, lost control of his F-350, hurtled across the median into oncoming traffic on I-20, and collided with a vehicle driving below the speed limit in its proper lane on the other side—a vehicle which, tragically for the Blakes, happened to be an 18-wheeler,” the court wrote.
If there were negligent acts on Ali’s part, according to the decision, it did not contribute to the actual crash. Citing a legal precedent, the court says where the Werner truck was located at the time of the crash was merely “the condition that made the harm possible.”
If Ali had been going even faster, the court noted, the crash would not have taken place, in the same way that if the truck had been going slower the incident would not have occurred.
‘Happenstance of place and time’
Where Ali’s truck was, the court said citing language from an earlier precedent, was “precisely the kind of ‘happenstance of place and time’ that can have enormous consequences for the victims of an accident but cannot reasonably be considered the proximate cause of the accident or the resulting injuries,” the court said.
70% liability for Werner doesn’t hold up
As for Werner and its 70% liability assignment, the court said ”the judgment against Werner cannot stand given that its driver, Ali, did not proximately cause the plaintiffs’ injuries.” The finding against Werner was rooted in the jury’s acceptance of the Blakes’ argument that it was negligent in how it trained Ali.
The jury, and then the appellate court, “pointed to evidence that Ali lacked the training and experience to safely drive an 18-wheeler in hazardous conditions and that Werner knew or should have known that he was unfit for the assignment,” the court said.
But with Ali’s negligence seen as having only a secondary causation of the crash, the court said, “Werner’s negligent training and supervision, even if proved, could not have been a proximate cause of the Blakes’ injuries because Ali’s negligent driving was not a proximate cause.”
In its latest 10-Q filing, Werner said its insurance coverage exposed the truckload carrier to a maximum liability of $10 million. It already had recorded liabilities of just over $90 million for the jury verdict but also had recorded on its books a $79.2 million receivable from its insurance provider.
Werner was not immediately available for comment.
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