The Georgia Court of Appeals has tossed a $30 million verdict for an injured hand.

“Because the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury on a substantial and vital issue presented by the pleadings and the evidence—the defendant's theory that his alleged negligence per se was unknowing and unintentional—we must reverse and remand for a new trial,” Presiding Judge Christopher McFadden wrote for a panel that included Judges Elizabeth Branch and Charlie Bethel.

“It is the duty of the trial court, whether requested or not, to give the jury appropriate instructions on every substantial and vital issue presented by the evidence, and on every theory of the case,” McFadden said. “Once a plaintiff establishes a prima facie case of negligence per se, the 'burden then shifts to the defendant to show that the violation was unintentional and in the exercise of ordinary care.'”

What became known as the $30 million hand verdict was delivered for injuries to a woman's hand and arm during a trial before Fulton County State Court Judge Eric Richardson in 2016.
The injury was caused by a crash that happened in 2012 when Abdulmohsen Almassud and Luisa Mezquital approached each other driving in opposite directions on a road in Forsyth County. Almassud's Jeep crossed the center line and crashed into Mezquital's car. Mezquital sustained severe injuries to her hand in the collision. When she sued, she alleged that the Jeep was unsafe. He claimed the steering failed and blamed Oh's Auto Center for a faulty repair, McFadden noted.

In oral arguments, Laurie Webb Daniel, chair of Holland & Knight's national appellate team and leader of the firm's Atlanta litigation practice, told the court she wouldn't belabor the sheer amount of the verdict—although she did mention it was “many, many times” in excess of judgments in comparable cases. Instead she focused on Richardson's instructions to the jury.

The judge, Daniel said, declined to include in the jury charge the sole defense raised by her client: that he lost control of his Jeep because of a mechanical defect in the steering. He had recently modified the Jeep for off-road use.

“We are pleased, of course, to get such a well-reasoned and unanimous decision in favor of our client, Mr. Almassud,” Daniel said Thursday.

Ben Brodhead of Brodhead Law won the $30 million verdict for Mezquital and defended it at oral arguments.

“Obviously, in a case of this importance, we expect further appeals,” Brodhead said Thursday in an email. “The ruling will likely have a far-reaching effect. Now, when a defendant presents even slight evidence that his violation of a statute was unintentional and in the exercise of ordinary care, the trial court must be reversed for failing to create a jury charge on this topic. This is true even when the defendant fails to ask for such a charge. Since there is no Pattern Charge, the trial courts have not been instructing the juries as required by the Court of Appeals. The ruling will likely cause a rush to the appellate courts to reverse every plaintiff's verdict involving negligence per se. Making this jury charge mandatory will impact almost all car wreck cases as well as all cases involving negligence per se.”

The case is Almassud v. Mezquital, No. A17A2119.