Plaintiff Gayle Bury was driving to a 7-11 and was proceeding through a green light at the intersection of 24 Mile Road and Gratiot. Gayle could not see the intersection because there was a line of cars in the left-hand turn lane.
Defendant MedStar Inc.’s ambulance was coming to the intersection and ran a red light. Although it had lights and sirens on and was legally allowed to proceed through a red light, it had to do so safely.
Industry standards and MedStar’s own training materials required the ambulance to stop at the red light to see and be seen, and to make sure that the cross traffic was clear. Medstar’s driver failed to do that.
He also never turned his head to the right and had on Oakley sunglasses; plaintiff’s counsel obtained the manufacturers insert, which warned against using while driving because they can block peripheral vision. The plaintiff saved the sunglasses for trial and used them to impeach the driver with the packaging insert warning.
The defendant denied all liability and would only offer $250,000 up until the time of trial, despite having $11 million in insurance coverage for the loss.
Moreover, the defendant withheld evidence, including claiming that its driver never received any discipline and did everything right. It came out during the trial that this was false. In fact, the driver was given a corrective action form that was put in his personnel file. The defense attorneys removed this corrective action from the driver’s file before producing it to the plaintiff’s counsel. This fact came out in the middle of trial during vigorous cross-examination, where the defendant’s safety manager admitted there was a corrective action form that was removed from the driver’s personnel file before it was produced.
Finally, after the defendant driver testified at trial and blamed the plaintiff, she had a stroke and had to be hospitalized after the day broke for trail. The plaintiff had a number of underlying health conditions, including multiple sclerosis, congestive heart disease and others. The plaintiff was unable to attend the trial after her stroke and plaintiff’s counsel had to have her deposition read by her daughter.
The jury was out for about two hours before rendering a unanimous verdict.
Counsel for the plaintiff, Jon Marko, provided case information.
Type of action: Third-party auto negligence
Injuries alleged: Broken bones, PTSD, depression and pain
Name of case: Gayle and Gary Bury v. Med Star Ambulance, Inc.
Court/Case no./Date: Macomb County; 22-000878-NI; 06/11/2024
Tried before: Jury
Name of judge: Hon. Richard Caretti
Name of mediator: Dan Makarski
Demand: $1,900,000
Highest offer: $250,000
Verdict amount: $6,523,232.89
Most helpful experts: John Everlove, EMS safety); Tim Robbins, accident reconstruction; Dr. Gerald Shiener, psychiatry; Dr. Julie Burnham, neurology; and Dr. Bryan Wagner, ortho
Attorneys for plaintiff: Jon Marko and Pat Derkacz, Detroit
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