Top Ten Jury Verdicts of 2009

After years of decline, the Top Ten Jury Verdicts rose dramatically in 2008. The increase in 2009 was less pronounced, but the average increased again, from $112 million to nearly $145 million.

The top award was slightly lower in 2009 – $370 million versus $388 million. But two other awards in the $300 million range, along with five verdicts of $70 million or more, helped push the average appreciably higher than last year.

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1. Quirky trial leads to record $370M defamation verdict: After a bizarre trial, a Los Angeles jury awarded a record defamation verdict of $370 million, including $25 million in punitive damages, to five former employees of Guess Jeans mogul Georges Marciano.

2. Florida jury awards mother $330 million in DUI fatality: Jurors in Florida needed less than an hour to award $330 million to the mother of a 13-year-old killed in  a drunken driving accident in April 2007.

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3. $300 million record-setting tobacco verdict: In the tenth Engle case, jurors needed just three hours of deliberations to charge Philip Morris with a $300 million award in favor of a Florida man suffering from severe emphysema.

4. Missouri jury awards $89M in drunk driving case: In one of the largest DUI damages verdicts in history, the family of a Missouri man killed by a drunk driver was awarded $89 million.

5. Illinois woman wins $78.75 million Prempro verdict: In the largest individual hormone replacement therapy verdict so far, a New Jersey jury awarded $78.75 million in damages to an Illinois woman who claimed the hormone therapy replacement drug Prempro caused her breast cancer.

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6. $77.4M for parents of infant injured during childbirth: In one of the largest medical malpractice verdicts in the history of New York’s Westchester County, a jury awarded $77.4 million to the parents of Diego Baizan.

7. Ousted water company partner wins $71 million: Alleging conversion and breach of fiduciary duty, one partner in a three-man water drilling company sued his partners after they tried to shut him out of their Texas business.

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