Willie Kelly suffered lower back injuries after a tractor-trailer driver struck his 1992 Mercedes E320 station wagon on Interstate 84 in Waterbury in 2016. Courtesy photo

Confident the questions he'd be asking during jury selection about passion and negligence could end up meaning a large payout for his client, New Haven-based plaintiff attorney Mohan Sreenivasan took the gamble and put his faith in the jurors.

That faith paid off to the tune of $1,026,871.

Sreenivasan's client, 48-year-old New Haven resident Willie Kelly, is set to receive $821,497, because the jury assigned 20% of the blame to the plaintiff. His suffered lasting injuries after a tractor-trailer that defendant Don Jin Yeun was driving sideswiped Kelly's Mercedes E320 station wagon, according to court pleadings.

For plaintiff counsel, the litigation hinged on persuading jurors that Kelly had lost more than physical comfort and health that day, and that the crash deprived him of several passions. A bulging disc in the lower back meant permanent pain would encroach on basketball and other activities that helped Kelly in his work with at-risk youth.

Sreenivasan co-owns Calabrese + Sreenivasan with his wife Randi. He took over the motor vehicle tort case in September 2019 from other attorneys, and fielded a $60,000 offer from the defense to settle. He declined the offer, because Sreenivasan was confident he could select the right jurors to shift the case in his client's favor.

"When I was picking the jury, I asked each of them what is something they were passionate about. There were two golfers, one who cooked and one who did woodworking," he said. "I then asked them in the event they were not able to pursue their passion because of someone else's negligence, do they think there was value there? The ones that said, 'Yes,' I kept on the jury, and the ones that said, 'No,' I would replace. You just got rid of them."

After jury selection, Sreenivasan said he was feeling confident. He said he wasn't surprised with the verdict rendered on Feb. 5.

"Huge cases are won and lost during jury selection," he said. "I knew the questions I was going to ask. Human beings are passionate about how they enjoy in life. This might not have been a death case, but because this accident took away his passions, it could have just as well been a death case."

The strategy worked.

Jurors found Yeun 80% responsible for the accident, assigning the remainder of the blame to Kelly.

Defense counsel Nathan Mayhew, of Ryan Ryan DeLuca in Hartford, represented Yeun and employer Heartland Express.

Mayhew didn't respond to a request for comment Wednesday, but his answer and special defense to the fourth amended complaint show the defendants blamed Kelly's driving for the crash.

"Such negligence on the part of the plaintiff was the substantial factor in producing the damages and losses" suffered, Mayhew argued.

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