A Harris County state district judge has asked the family of an airport worker who was paralyzed when he was hit by a fueling company’s van to accept a reduction of $117.5 million from a jury verdict of $352.7 million.
Randy Sorrels, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said Thursday that his client would consent to the suggested remittitur. He added, however, that if the other side appeals he will in turn file a cross-appeal seeking the full $352.7 million, plus interest.
Rusty Hardin, the lead attorney for the defendant company, Allied Aviation Fueling Co. of Houston, declined to comment.
The stratospheric figures arose from the case of Ulysses Cruz, who was a United Airlines service worker at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
According to court documents and testimony at trial, on the morning of Sept. 7, 2019, Cruz was walking behind the wing of an aircraft departing from its gate when an Allied Aviation Fueling van hit him, throwing him several feet through the air and to the tarmac.
Cruz, then 48, was wearing the standard bright yellow vest of “wing walkers” and holding two bright orange wands used to signal any nearby vehicles to yield to a departing aircraft. The driver of the van, Reginald Willis, told investigators he didn’t see Cruz because the early morning sun was in his eyes, according to testimony.
Last October, a jury awarded Cruz, his wife and their two children $352.7 million in actual damages. On Nov. 6, Judge Ravi Sandill entered a judgment in that amount.
In an order issued Tuesday, Sandill said he’d reviewed a defense motion for a new trial, plus supporting affidavits and exhibits, and recommended that the non-economic portion of the judgment be reduced by a total of $117.5 million. Had Sorrels’ clients not accepted the reductions, Sandill said, he would grant Allied Aviation Fueling’s motion for a new trial.
Among the reductions suggested by the judge were $32.5 million each for Cruz’s future physical pain and mental anguish. The jury awarded Cruz $70 million in each of those damage categories.
Sandill also proposed reducing damages awarded to Cruz’s children, by $7.5 million to Cruz’s daughter and $10 million to his son. The daughter was 14 when her father was injured, the son 18. The jury had awarded each child $20 million.
Sorrels said his clients would consent to all of the judge’s suggested reductions so they can put the lawsuit behind them, “even though they believe, and I believe, that the jury’s original, full verdict was righteous and appropriate.”
During the two-week trial, Sorrels told jurors Cruz is unable to perform the most basic bodily functions without assistance and will never recover from his crippling injuries.
“This award is for his real physical pain and anguish,” Sorrels told The Texas Lawbook after the jury returned its verdict. “And, frankly, given the extent of his injuries, it could have been more.
“He was hospitalized, then in rehab for 13 months. He’s paralyzed from the chest down. While he was hospitalized, he suffered a stroke as a direct result of his injuries. He’s going to need 24-hour-a-day care for the rest of his life.”
Also representing the Cruz family is Alexandra Farias-Sorrels, Randy Sorrels’s wife and a fellow personal-injury lawyer.
In addition to Hardin, the lawyers for Allied Aviation Fueling are Joe Roden, Ryan Higgins and Daniel R. Dutko of Rusty Hardin & Associates; Stuart B. Brown Jr., Brett Kutnick, Justin V. Lee, and Joseph A. Fischer III of Jackson Walker; Nina Cortell, Mark Trachtenberg, Kent Rutter and Ryan Pitts of Haynes and Boone; and Wallace Jefferson, Bill Boyce, Robert Dubose and Rachel Ekery of Alexander Dubose & Jefferson.