L.M. v. Darbo, National RV

L. M. was returning home from work on a Friday afternoon when she came to a T-intersection on a rural road in Riverside County. As she slowly entered the intersection, the defendant, driving a 40′ motor home ran his stop sign at about 45 mph broadsiding her vehicle. L. M. suffered numerous fractures and other debilitating injuries. She underwent 7 surgeries and was unable to return to work after the accident.

The defendants claimed that L. M. was solely responsible for the accident because she rolled through her stop sign without completely stopping. They argued that if she had completely stopped, the accident would never have happened. They also claimed that she was under the influence of various drugs at the time of the accident including cannabis, opiates and amphetamine (according to a toxicology screen performed in the emergency room) which contributed to the accident.

After a four week trial in Riverside County Superior Court, Peter Williamson obtained a unanimous verdict in favor of L. M. in the sum of 1.7 million dollars. More importantly, the jury unanimously found that L. M. did not contribute to the accident and rejected the defense evidence that she was under the influence at the time of the accident. The defendants were held 100% liable for her injuries and other damages.