No Jury Trials in Texas

On Friday, June 27th, The Supreme Court of Texas reversed a $90 million verdict against Werner Enterprises and a driver in a fatal 2014 car crash. The collision killed one and severely injured three others. Werner has long claimed that the driver, Shiraz Ali, was not at fault for this crash and that it couldn’t have been avoided, despite a Houston jury finding Werner liable and awarding the victim’s family $89.7 million.

The Texas Supreme Court ignored the jury and  decided that the, “driver of a pickup truck traveling too fast on an icy, divided interstate highway suddenly lost control, hurtled across a 42-foot-wide median, and collided with the defendant’s 18-wheeler before the defendant had time to react.”

The attorneys for the plaintiff argued that Ali should have exited the interstate due to its icy conditions and blamed Werner for not instructing Ali to avoid the
highway because of the hazardous conditions. In the initial trial, the jury determined that “if not for the 18-wheeler’s speed, which was below the speed limit but still unsafe for the icy conditions, the accident likely would not have occurred or the injuries would have been less severe.”

However, the Texas Supreme Court later ruled that this evidence was insufficient to establish that Werner’s negligence was a “substantial factor” in causing the injuries. The jury apportioned 7-% of the responsibility for causing the victims’ injuries to Werner employees other than Ali, 14% to Ali, and 16% to the pickup driver, Trey Salinas.

Werner and Shiraz Ali appealed the original verdict, challenging both the legal and factual basis for the jury’s findings of negligence against Ali and Werner. Despite their appeal, an en banc court of appeals affirmed the district court’s judgment, leading Werner and Ali to appeal to the state’s Supreme Court. Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock stated that although the Werner truck’s presence on the highway and its speed “furnished the condition that
made the injuries possible,” it did not cause the injuries to occur. Blacklock wrote:

“This awful accident happened because an out-of-control vehicle suddenly skidded across a wide median and struck the defendant’s truck, before he had time to react, as he drove below the speed limit in his proper lane of traffic,” and “Rather, the sole proximate cause of this accident and these injuries –the sole substantial factor to which the law permits assignment of liability – was the sudden, unexpected hurtling of the victims’ vehicle into oncoming highway traffic, for which the defendants bore no responsibility.”

Ultimately, the Texas Supreme Court concluded that the evidence was legally insufficient to prove that neither Werner nor its driver, Shiraz Ali, was a substantial cause of the crash. Instead, the Court found that the sole cause explaining the accident was pickup driver Trey Salinas losing control and veering in front of the Werner truck. Ali’s negligence, if any, was too “attenuated to constitute a substantial factor.”

Werner and Ali were entitled to a judgment in their favor, as there were allegedly not viable liability theories against Werner that were independent of Ali’s responsibility for the accident. The Court reversed the decisions of the district and appellate courts.

In Texas Supreme Court Justice Jane Bland’s dissenting opinion, she agreed that the original judgment should be reversed but disagreed with the judgment rendered in favor of Werner and Ali. Blank argued that the jury charge was erroneous and that the jury was misled into placing excessive responsibility on Werner and Ali. She acknowledged that there was evidence that Ali may have contributed to the victims’ injuries and believed that it should be remanded for a new trial.

The American Trucking Associations’ President and CEO praised the Texas Supreme Court’s decision, calling it “a resounding affirmation of common sense and fairness. The Court rightly recognized that a motor carrier cannot be negligent simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”