Wreck with police caused her death, lawsuit contended. Now Tacoma will pay $2 million

The Tacoma City Council recently approved a settlement agreement for $2 million in a wrongful-death case. The decedent’s estate argued that her death could be traced to a 2015 police officer-involved car crash.

Two years before Shamarra Scott died in February 2020, she filed a lawsuit that named the city of Tacoma as a defendant, as well as officer Wade White. Court documents show that on Oct. 14, 2015, Scott was driving on North 21st Street toward Pearl Street when White exited a strip-mall parking lot to turn left, T-boning her car.

Scott’s legal team claimed that the officer caused the collision by failing to yield to the right-of-way when entering traffic.

Scott drove herself to the hospital after the wreck instead of being transported via ambulance, according to court documents. She alleged that the crash caused her injuries and physical pain.

Lawyers for Scott’s estate later asserted that the wreck was responsible for a cascade of medical issues that would eventually lead to her paralysis and death. Defense attorneys cast doubt on those claims, suggesting her “injuries were solely and proximately caused by the negligence and/or contributory fault of Plaintiff and/or certain of her medical providers.”

The News Tribune reached out to the defense team, plaintiff/petitioner attorneys and White for comment but did not receive replies. White has since retired, a spokesperson for the Tacoma Police Department told The News Tribune.

City spokesperson Maria Lee told The News Tribune that on July 9 the City Council voted on a motion to move ahead with the $2 million settlement.

“With the City Council’s approval of the motion, it allowed the City Attorney’s Office to execute a settlement agreement with the Plaintiff and resolve the pending claims,” Lee wrote. “We would not comment on the specific facts of the case and generally cannot discuss the reasons for settlement of that lawsuit.”

One court document from 2020 put Scott’s medical costs at more than $4.6 million, noting that the total had yet to be updated.

Scott’s death certificate cited the cause of death as Guillain-Barre Syndrome and detailed other contributing factors, including “chronic kidney disease, large left ischium wound, quadriparesis, long term tracheostomy, sarcoidosis, [and] seizure disorder,” per court documents.

Her estate sued the city with claims that the wreck prompted a flare in her sarcoidosis, a rare inflammatory disease, documents show. That required steroid treatment, and experts hired by the plaintiff believed that it led to weakened bones and later spinal surgery.

Scott underwent surgery in December 2018 but developed an infection that attacked her muscles and neurological system, according to court documents. She had to be fitted with a tracheostomy tube to breathe, and she became unable to speak. She also was then “paralyzed from the neck down” and could only move her eyes.

She was 40 when she died.