Case Results
John Doe v. Interstate Motor Carrier: The Bergmanis Law Firm secured $2.2 million dollars for a partially retired veteran that was rear ended by a semi-truck on a Missouri interstate in a work zone. He broke several ribs, punctured and collapsed a lung, broke his pelvis, several vertebrae in his back, and fractured his nose.
Surviving Parents vs. Company X: Our attorney, Tim Morgan, helped achieve a confidential settlement for the surviving family members of a young man that was working for his mother and father’s company as a tow truck driver that was ran over and killed while helping a stranded motorist on the Bond Bridge in Kansas City, Missouri by a semi-truck. This case received a lot of publicity in the Kansas City area and elsewhere because it involved questions regarding the “Move Over” law and several rallies to raise awareness for first responders, tow vehicles, law enforcement and others that are protected by the law requiring motorist to move over and/or slow down for emergency vehicles.
Black v. Brunswick: Bergmanis Law Firm was recognized for obtaining the largest verdict reported in the entire state of Missouri during the year of 2014. The award came from a $15,000,000 jury verdict for a retiree who suffered severe burn injuries in a boat explosion on Lake of the Ozarks. The plaintiff endured months in the ICU, and years of litigation, but after several weeks of having a jury listen to his case it took less than a few hours for the verdict in his favor to be decided.
Surviving Children vs. Maintenance Corporation: The Bergmanis Law Firm, helped secure a confidential wrongful death settlement for the surviving adult children of a man who was fatally burned when the power plant he worked at had steam valves fail and explode onto him and a co-worker.
John Doe v. Company X: The Bergmanis Law Firm secured a confidential settlement for the victim of a fire that erupted in the engine compartment of his twin engine cruiser boat while he was inside. He was trapped inside the burning engine compartment until a rescuer lifted the hatch prior to what witnesses described as a second explosion occurring in the boat shortly after the victim rolled out of the engine compartment into the lake. Years of litigation, expert inspections, laboratory testing and depositions of said experts supported the theory that improper routing of the fuel lines caused cracking over time that allowed for gasoline to escape during his fueling on the day of the fire.
Cravens v. Ryder Truck: Our attorney, Tim Morgan, obtained a 1.4 million dollar verdict with Rob Sullivan while working at Langdon and Emison in a very tough product liability case. Their result was recognized by Missouri Lawyers Weekly as one of the top results for a Plaintiff for the year of 2006. The case required them to prove a product defect however the product was not available for inspection after the crash. The insurance company had destroyed the vehicle as salvage since the driver had appeared to simply rear end a big school bus with giant brake lights. However, aerial video footage from a news chopper showed brake marks on the road, but only two marks that followed all the way up to the two front tires on the Ryder Truck. The subject truck actually had four wheels on the rear. So, there should have been four tire marks on the roadway if the back brakes had locked like the front ones. The Missouri law enforcement officer that responded to the scene documented these marks on the roadway and attributed them to the front tires of the subject truck.
During the trial an expert testified that if the back brakes had locked then the truck would have stopped short of hitting the school bus. The trial focused on why the brakes failed to work as intended. The evidence was that there had been no documentation regarding any maintenance at all on the back brakes even though the vehicle had over 100,000 miles.
John Doe vs. Stick Boom Manufacturer: Our attorney, Tim Morgan, helped to secure a confidential settlement for a migrant worker that received a life-threatening brain injury when the self-propelled stick boom he was operating tipped over at a construction site near Los Angeles, California. The case highlighted and emphasized the design and safety differences between the stick booms designed and manufactured for sale in the United States compared to those prepared for sale in European countries. The allegations were that similar lifts sold in Europe had a safety feature included in their design that would have prevented the Plaintiff’s tip over. Many scissor lifts and other motorized aerial lifts present hazards to workers that are unaware of the machine’s design limitations.
John Doe vs. Interstate Motor Carrier Company: Our attorney, Tim Morgan, obtained a confidential settlement for a truck driver who was rear ended by another semi-truck when traffic was backed up on I-70 near downtown Kansas City, Missouri.
Reagan v. Dunaway Timber: Our attorney, Tim Morgan, helped attorneys, Rob Sullivan, of Sullivan Law Firm, and, Kent Emison, of Langdon and Emison, achieve a $7,000,000 jury verdict in an Arkansas Federal Court sitting in Jonesboro, Arkansas, for the family of a truck driver who was the victim of a secondary crash. Another semi-truck had been traveling the opposite direction and had a crash and afterwards the semi-truck collided with our client’s semi-truck. He was on the shoulder at the time. His truck was smashed and burst into flames. The parties reached a confidential settlement before the jury verdict was entered by the Court as a final judgment.
Surviving Family vs. Auto Manufacturer: Our attorney, Tim Morgan, helped secure a confidential settlement for the surviving family members of a fireman in the Baltimore/Prince George area in Maryland. The case focused on a safety issue with many vehicles’ front seats being too weak in rear impact crashes causing them to fail backwards which renders the seat belt completely ineffective, thereby causing the occupant to be ejected or flown into the back seat so forcefully enough to break their neck or fatally injure their child who is sitting behind them in the vehicle. Cheap lawn chairs will pass the testing that is required by the government regulations. The case involved a crash where the vehicle our client was in spun around and struck a tree in the rear. He was ejected out of the back window. Emergency responders arrived to find his seat belt still buckled. Having experience in cases involving crashes where the seat back fails by folding backwards during the crash it was apparent that is how he was ejected. Physical evidence examined after the crash and with industrial x-ray machines supported the proposition that the seat was upright at the time of the crash and broke backwards causing the off duty firemen to be ejected out of the rear window and fatally injured.
John Doe v. Auto Manufacturer: Our attorney, Tim Morgan, secured a confidential settlement with a major auto manufacturer on behalf of a young girl who required amputation of her arm after the vehicle she was a passenger in scraped against a tree in Jefferson County, Missouri. The allegations were that the vehicle failed to keep her inside the vehicle because it did not have side curtain airbags that would work in a partial rollover or side impact crash like the one that caused her to lose her arm.
Surviving Family Members vs. Auto Manufacturer and RV Dealer: Our attorney, Tim Morgan, secured a confidential settlement with Ford Motor Company and a RV Dealer for the surviving family of a Missouri woman who was killed in a crash that occurred in New Mexico while her and her husband were traveling in their truck towing the RV. The case involved allegations that the roof of the truck was not reasonably strong for the crash forces experienced in a roll over. In other words, there is too much roof crush which then completely breaks out the side window and also creates a bunch of slack in the seatbelt because the anchor point is usually along the roof’s rail. All of these factors in combination cause a fully seat belted and restrained occupant to get partially ejected out of the truck during the rollover which more times than not leads to fatal injury. The issue regarding the RV dealer focused on the sale of too much or big of an RV for the size of the towing vehicle to safely travel. The RV part of this case reached a confidential settlement after opening statements were presented to a Missouri Jury.
Surviving Family Members vs. Interstate Motor Carrier (Trucking Company): Our attorney, Tim Morgan, helped obtain a confidential wrongful death settlement for the surviving children of a young mother who was killed when she rear ended a semi-truck on interstate 35 outside of Kansas City, MO. The case focused on the condition of the semi-truck’s underside guard that is meant to stop cars from going underneath semi-trucks when one rear ends the other. The under-ride guard on the truck she hit failed, and the car traveled under the truck allowing intrusion into the driver’s seat causing fatal injuries.
Surviving Family Members v. Gas Station/Convenience Store X: Our attorney, Tim Morgan, obtained a confidential wrongful death settlement for the surviving family members of a young man who was killed by artificial marijuana or what was being called potpourri. The name brand was often referred to as K2. Chemical compounds were simply being sprayed onto plant material and causing bizarre behaviors and deaths across the country. In Missouri gas stations were being raided for selling the materials after being banned. Some still sold them out of a back room. The allegations in this case were that the gas station was selling this “fake weed” out of a back room and sold some that killed our client’s family member.
Surviving Family Member vs. Missouri Funeral Home: Our attorney, Tim Morgan, obtained multiple confidential settlements on behalf of many victims of a funeral home that had been treating the deceased offensively and the customers fraudulently by failing to properly cremate remains. The funeral home in this case had been raided by the state of Missouri. Some claimants that brought cases had courts rule against them on insurance coverage. We prevailed where other claimants failed because the claim regarding one’s right of sepulcher was made on behalf of the client. Missouri law values surviving family members need for a proper funeral and caring of their deceased loved ones.
Jane Doe v. Baby Accessory Manufacturer: Our attorney, Tim Morgan, obtained a confidential wrongful death settlement for the parents of an infant who died in a car crash that occurred in the state of Virginia. The infant had been strapped into an infant safety seat. The car seat had an insert made by Goldbug that cushions the seat some. However, the insert changes the effectiveness of the car seat, and no crash testing is conducted with inserts. Installing the insert is contrary to all the car seat manufacturers owner’s manuals. In other words, there was no safe way according to the child seat manufacturer to install the accessory into the child seat as it changes the seatbelts fit and cushioning involved. The case was resolved prior to a jury trial.
Blankenship v. GM: Our attorney, Tim Morgan, while working at Langdon and Emison in Lexington, Missouri helped to secure a confidential settlement in Jasper County Missouri. The settlement was obtained for the benefit of a young high school girl from Nevada, Missouri. She had been paralyzed from the waist down when the minivan she was riding in crashed into a hillside. She was sitting in the center seat of the second row which was equipped with a lap belt only and did not have a shoulder strap. None of the other occupants were permanently injured in the crash. The lap only type seat belt is no longer allowed to be sold in vehicles. Unfortunately, the dangerous single strap seat belt was often found in the center seat of vehicles for many years even after car manufacturers knew they were dangerous and knew how to fix them very easily. However, the government didn’t change the regulations, so the cars stayed the same even though there are several reported verdicts and settlements against the manufacturers for failing to equip the vehicle with a lap and shoulder belt in all seating positions.
John Doe vs. Railroad Corp. and Construction Company: Obtained a multimillion-dollar settlement on behalf of a concrete truck driver who was struck by a freight train after delivering concrete on a roadway job project. The general contractor for the roadway construction project was using a makeshift railroad crossing without adequate safety precautions in place rendering the crossing dangerous even when reasonable precautions are taken by the driver of a vehicle attempting to cross the tracks.
Helm v. Ford: Our attorney, Tim Morgan, while working at Langdon and Emison in Lexington, Missouri, helped secure a confidential settlement for a paralyzed young mother. This case, like most cases against big automakers, involved discovery disputes about the secrecy of documents that required work all the way up to the Supreme Court of Missouri on more than one occasion. Ultimately, a confidential settlement was reached after the Supreme Court refused the relief sought by the automotive manufacturer. The case involved allegations that the seat belt in the truck was defective because it allowed spool out and slack which allowed occupants to strike their heads on the roof, as well as allegations that the roof should not crush as much as it did if not for a defective design.
Forester v. Auto Manufacturer and Seat Belt Manufacturer: Our attorney, Tim Morgan, obtained confidential settlements for a young working father and husband who lost control of his SUV on the way to work and was ejected through the passenger side window. Records searches revealed that there had been a NHTSA investigation on a seat belt buckle and latch plate combination that had a substantially similar design as the one in the SUV at issue in this case. The case also involved allegations of defective window design for using tempered glass.
Bruce v. Ford: Our attorney, Tim Morgan, while working at Langdon and Emison in Lexington, Missouri helped secure a confidential settlement in a case that alleged the vehicle’s front driver’s seat was defective. The confidential settlement was obtained to help a young child that received a brain injury when his mother’s driver’s seat failed backwards into his head when they were rear ended. In this case the child was riding on the passenger side of the vehicle. The direction of impact and the way the driver’s seat failed it would have launched the driver towards the passenger side of the vehicle. This case also involved similar discovery disputes over documents as the Helm v. Ford case.
Steeples v. Ford: Our attorney, Tim Morgan, obtained a confidential settlement for a Missouri mother who lost her daughter to fatal internal injuries caused by a lap belt in the center seat of her Ford Explorer. This case arose out of a simple rear end accident where no one else was injured but it caused fatal injuries to her young daughter. The alleged defective seat belt involved in this case has been outlawed in currently manufactured vehicles but still exists on the road as a hidden danger in millions of cars, vans and trucks.
Hayes v. Wheeled Coach Ambulance: Our attorney, Tim Morgan, while working at Langdon and Emison in Lexington, Missouri helped secure a confidential settlement after uncovering a defective manufacturing process with respect to the construction of the ambulance box that the Plaintiff was working in when the roll over occurred. The box completely fell apart allowing the first responder to be thrown from the ambulance which caused permanent injury, including a brain injury. After hunting through boxes of documents that were pulled from a cave near Kansas City, Missouri, even though the Ambulance manufacturer had moved to Florida several past employees were discovered. A former supervisor for the Defendant was located in another state and testified that they fully welded the ambulances together when he was there, but management wanted to switch to tape and glue on many of the places that there did not appear to be full welding on the subject box. The allegations in the case were that the box did not have reasonable structural integrity to contain the occupants within the box in a crash.
Paris v. BNSF: Tim Morgan, while at Langdon and Emison in Lexington, Missouri helped to obtain a confidential settlement for a farmer who was struck while driving his truck across the railroad tracks by on track equipment being operated by the railroad. The lights and the crossing were not activated by the on-track equipment being operated by the railroad. The railroad knows it will not set off active warnings which is why it instructs its operators to yield to motorist when operating on-track railroad equipment.
Overstreet v. GM: Tim Morgan, while at Langdon and Emison in Lexington, Missouri helped to obtain a confidential settlement in a case where an airbag deployed that should not have deployed in a Geo Prizm. The decedent was a 50-year-old mother of adult children. The case was brought in Cook County, Illinois. The crash in the case did not damage the vehicle in that it merely pulled forward into a light pole after grocery shopping when getting out of her parking spot. The airbag fired and struck her before it was fully deployed as she was shorter and had her seat moved forward to reach the pedals. She received fatal injuries instantly upon the airbag striking her head.
Savage v. Evenflo and Ford: Tim Morgan, while at Langdon and Emison in Lexington, Missouri helped to obtain a confidential wrongful death settlement for the death of a one-year-old baby boy. Cargo from the car’s trunk broke through the back seat during a head on collision. It then broke the child safety seat which allowed the infant to receive his fatal injuries.
Angelique Shearer v. Chrysler: Tim Morgan, while at Langdon and Emison in Lexington, Missouri helped to obtain confidential settlement for young woman with a brain injury due to the lack of a shoulder belt in the middle seating position of a 2000 minivan.