Date: 10-29-2009

Case Style: Douglas Mayher v. Jennifer Martin

Case Number:

Judge: Timothy P. Pickard

Court: Circuit Court, Lenawee County, Michigan

Plaintiff's Attorney: David Christensen, Gursten, Koltonow, Gursten, Christensen & Raitt, P.C., Southfield, Michigan

Defendant's Attorney: Richard Moblo, Moblo & Fleming, Livonia, Michgian

Description: Douglas Mayher sued Jennifer Martin on an auto negligence theory claiming that she failed to exercise due care in the operation of her SUV on M-50 in 2005 and, as a direct result, her car ran into Mayher's stopped vehicle injuring him. Plaintiff claimed that he sustained brain damage.

The defenses asserted by Defendant are not available.

Outcome: Plaintiff's verdict for $2,095,000 reduced to $300,000 plus $214,911 in interest and $30,814 in sanctions pursuant to a high-low agreement entered into by the parties before trial.

Plaintiff's Experts:

Defendant's Experts:

Comments: Editor's Note: This case illustrates that it is not possible for anyone to know with any certainty what any given group of jurors on any given day will do in response to a case. The attorneys in this case were essentially covering their bets so to speak by entering into a high low agreement. It is easy to second guess Mr. Mayher and it attorney entering into the agreement in retrospect but with another group of randomly selected jurors it may have been a great idea. According to David Christensen: "When evaluating our decision to accept a high-low agreement, the pertinent facts were that the defendant was an uncollectable 19 year old girl, the insurance policy limits were only $300,000 and Michigan has no bad faith law so we never would have recovered any more than this amount, we negotiated for an extra $200,000 in interest we would not have otherwise received, and the deal included the defense waiving any appeal, assuring prompt payment." In addition, he reported that: "This was, by far, the largest auto accident verdict in that county. We feel that the deal we made was very strong if one considers all the details."