Man injured in accident awarded
$11.3 million
Margaret Zack, Star Tribune
Published September 13, 2003
A man was awarded $11.3 million Friday
for a severe, permanent brain injury he suffered five
years ago when his minivan was struck by a semitrailer
truck at an intersection that didn't have working lights.
The award by a Hennepin County jury will
be reduced by 20 percent because the jury found that
the victim, Jeffrey Foust, 47, was 20 percent at fault.
Foust, of Mound, was driving his minivan
north on County Rd. 6 in Orono, and John McFarland was
driving a USF Holland semitrailer truck east on Hwy.
12 during rush hour on May 15, 1998.
A storm had passed through earlier, and
the lights at the intersection weren't working.
John Sheehy, Foust's attorney, told the
jury in his closing argument Thursday that McFarland
should have slowed down instead of assuming that he
had the right of way. He called McFarland's actions
highly dangerous.
Sheehy also said that the other drivers
were treating the disabled intersection as a four-way
stop.
But Brian Johnson, one of the attorneys
for McFarland and USF Holland, told the jury Thursday
that the evidence was clear that the accident was Foust's
fault.
He said that Foust didn't look to his
left before going through the intersection.
McFarland, a truck driver for 26 years,
acted reasonably in confusing circumstances at the intersection,
which had barricades, flashing lights and a railroad
cross arm down, Johnson said.
The jury awarded Foust $3.3 million for
damages up to the date of the verdict and $7.2 million
for future damages.
Of that, $6.7 million was for past and
future pain, disability, emotional distress, disfigurement
and embarrassment.
The jury awarded Foust's wife, Linda Foust,
$800,000 to compensate her for the loss of her husband's
service and companionship.
Sheehy, of the Meshbesher & Spence
law firm, said Foust's career as a director of international
marketing for ADC Telecommunications was ruined because
of the accident.
According to a memorandum filed with the
court by Sheehy, Foust's brain injury has caused memory
loss, depression, difficulty concentrating, inability
to organize and frustration.
Foust hasn't worked since November 1999
and was terminated by ADC in March 2001.
After a four-week trial, the jury deliberated
for about a day before returning its verdict to Hennepin
County District Judge Steven Lange.
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