Owatonna, Steele County Jury
Awards Farmer's Family $3.475 Million on Wrongful Death
Case
Owatonna, MN
July 26, 2001
A Steele County jury awarded nearly $3.5
million to the family of Dale Willert, age 53, who was
killed on September 25, 1998 by the collapse of a 3,000-pound
bi-fold door. Stockwell Construction, Inc., an Owatonna
company who contracted to install the door, admitted
liability shortly before trial and only the issue of
damages was tried to the jury.
In September 1998, Owatonna resident James
Polacek hired Stockwell Construction to rehabilitate
his farmstead barn. Stockwell arranged for several independent
contractors to pour the concrete floor in the barn,
including local farmer Dale Willert. John P. Sheehy,
Meshbesher & Spence, Ltd. of Minneapolis, Minnesota,
lead attorney for the Willert family, said, “Dale
Willert was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He
was a local farmer who preformed occasional concrete
work for other farmers. He was laying concrete when
the door to the barn fell off due to negligent and faulty
installation.”
The Willert verdict follows a Steele County
jury verdict of $4.69 million in February 2001 in a
consolidated case involving three (3) deaths. The jury
awarded over a million dollars to each family in that
case. The Willert verdict is noteworthy, however, because
it involved only a modest sum for economic loss and
involved only one family. The bulk of the jury’s
verdict was for the loss of the society and companionship
Dale Willert provided to his wife, Diane Willert, his
two married daughters, Laura Zvorak and Lisa Kluver,
and his five grandchildren.
Michael Snyder, another attorney for the
Willert family, said, “Dale’s death affected
three generations within his family. He was the cornerstone
and his death has been devastating to his family.”
His close friend and neighboring farmer,
David Dietz, testified, “He squeezed the most
out of everything and every day. He was a steward of
the land and he shared all he had and was with his family.”
Peter Sandberg, attorney for Stockwell
Construction, had no comment regarding the size of the
verdict, which is believed to be the largest wrongful
death award in Steele County.
John P. Sheehy and Michael C. Snyder of
Meshbesher & Spence, Ltd represented the Willert
family.
|
