Jury Awards $37.5M to Man Paralyzed in Missouri Tractor-Trailer Crash

November 17, 2016

A Missouri jury has awarded a $37.5 million judgment to a man left a paraplegic after a 2014 accident involving a vehicle and a tractor-trailer.

The Kansas City Star reports that the Jackson County jury sided with Steve Holdeman during a trial last week.

The newspaper says Holdeman was driving on Interstate 435 in February 2104 when he slowed in order not to hit Philip Stratman’s stalled car in the middle of the highway in front of him.

Stratman had shifted his car into neutral to preserve his car brakes when his vehicle stalled, and Holdeman’s vehicle then was hit by a tractor-trailer.

Holdeman sued Stratman and the tractor-trailer’s driver, though the jury found Stratman 99 percent at fault.