Butler Prather LLP Recently Secured $2.5 Million Verdict In Wrongful Death Case
We successfully argued that failure to properly restrain a patient during nonemergency transport resulted in preventable fatal injuries.
(Atlanta, GA) Atlanta personal injury attorneys Brandon Peak, Buddy Morrison and Mary Weeks of Butler Prather LLP recently worked with attorney Sandra Heath Taylor to secure a trial victory in favor of their client, a 94-year-old man who lost his daughter in 2010 to a serious motor vehicle accident. The team of Georgia trial lawyers earned a verdict of $2.5 million from a Troup County jury; a confidential high-low agreement was reached between the parties prior to the verdict.
The wrongful death lawsuit served to promote justice in the tragic death of then-63-year-old Mary Ellen Humphrey. Ms. Humphrey lived in a nursing home in LaGrange and underwent treatments at the West Georgia Dialysis Center three times a week. She was taken to these treatments via a private nonemergency transport (NET) company. Ms. Humphrey was partially restrained on a Stryker stretcher by three straps across her torso during the NET rides for her own safety, at least in part because she suffered paralysis in her legs.
During Ms. Humphrey’s return trip to the nursing home following a September 2010 dialysis visit, the NET vehicle she was traveling in was involved in an accident. When another vehicle rear-ended the NET vehicle carrying Ms. Humphrey, a lack of shoulder restraints allowed her to slide free from the torso restraints, into the driver’s seatback. Ms. Humphrey suffered fatal injuries, including several broken ribs and a fractured skull in the NET crash.
A forensic pathologist and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation associate medical examiner were called to testify at the three-day trial. “They both said that if she’d had the shoulder restraints, she would have sustained some nonfatal injuries during the wreck, but she wouldn’t have died,” lead plaintiff’s attorney Brandon Peak of Butler Prather LLP told The Daily Report.
Brilansie Enterprises, the NET company and Southeastrans, the company contracted by the Georgia Department of Health to provide NET services to Medicare and Medicaid patients, were deemed to be responsible for 80 percent of Ms. Humphrey’s injuries. No appeals are expected in the wrongful death case, Humphrey v. Brilansie Enterprises Inc., No. 12-CS-203.
The Georgia-based law firm of Butler Prather LLP is a nationally renowned firm. The exceptional trial lawyers at the firm’s Atlanta and Columbus offices have handled cases in 30 states and have won record verdicts and settlements on behalf of clients and while working as co-counsel with referring attorneys throughout the United States. If you have suffered a serious injury or have lost a loved one due to the negligence, wrongful conduct or intentional bad act of another, please contact our firm for a free consultation about your legal rights.