$6M verdict for road worker crushed under truck

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A jury in Charleston has awarded $6 million to a former South Carolina Department of Transportation employee whose lower body was crushed beneath the weight of a pickup loaded with concrete.

Carl McNeill, a safety and quality control inspector for the DOT, was examining pothole repair work when a contractor’s Ford F450 pickup slowly rolled over both his legs, breaking his femur and crushing his pelvis, urethra and scrotum, according to his attorney, Mark Joye of the Joye Law Firm in Charleston.

He said the truck driver’s insurer, Liberty Mutual, offered to settle the case for $3.5 million while McNeill had demanded $7 million. He added that the judge said before trial that he believed a fair settlement was $5.5 million, but the insurer wouldn’t budge.

“He [the judge] was spot on,” Joye said. “He asked both sides if they’d agree with that and we said, ‘Yes’ and they said, ‘No.’”

Defense attorneys David Cobb and Nickisha Woodward of Turner Padget Graham & Laney in Charleston did not respond to interview requests. They had admitted liability but contested damages, according to Joye.

He said the trial lasted three days and the jury of six women and two men deliberated for about two hours before reaching a $6 million verdict for McNeill. He was not paralyzed, but was left unable to work and will require testicle implant surgery.

Follow Phillip Bantz on Twitter @SCLWBantz

VERDICT REPORT – PERSONAL INJURY

Amount: $6 million

Highest offer: $3.5 million

Injuries alleged: Crushed pelvis, urethra and scrotum; broken femur

Case name: Carl McNeill v. Dwayne Alexander Marshall and Marketing Associates, Inc., d/b/a Applied Polymerics Inc.

Court: U.S. District Court in Charleston

Case number: 2:15-cv-191-PMD

Judge: Patrick Duffy

Date of verdict: Nov. 8

Attorney for plaintiff:  Mark Joye of the Joye Law Firm in Charleston

Attorneys for defendants: David Cobb and Nickisha Woodward of Turner Padget Graham & Laney in Charleston