Beasley Allen attorneys Rob Register (from left), Chris Glover and Dan Philyaw (Courtesy photo)

A Beasley Allen team won a $2.82 million verdict against Charter Communications in Gwinnett County State Court Friday.

The jury apportioned 100% of the fault to Charter for injuries from a truck wreck. The damages included: $303,000 for medical expenses, $53,000 for past lost wages, $467,000 for future lost wages and $2 million for noneconomic damages.

Charter was represented by Jason Darneille of Gower, Wooten & Darneille in Atlanta. Darneille could not be reached immediately for comment.

Court records show the company argued that the accident wasn’t the Charter driver’s fault.

The story started with a ladder that fell off a Charter van on a hilly stretch of Interstate 75 near Dalton, Georgia, in June 2015.

Trucker Brandon Jackson was driving his 18-wheeler south toward Atlanta when he rounded a curve and saw the ladder. In a split second, he chose to run over it rather than risk a reactionary, quick lane change that could have flipped the rig and put others in danger, according to court documents submitted by his lawyers, Rob Register, Chris Glover and Dan Philyaw of Beasley Allen. (Glover is managing attorney for the Atlanta office of Beasley Allen, which is headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama.)

But running over the ladder broke the Volvo truck’s drive axle and cut up several tires, Jackson’s lawyers said. He lost control, ran off the highway, hit another tractor-trailer that had pulled over and barreled down an embankment into the trees lining the interstate. Jackson’s tractor-trailer overturned.

“He was found buried under vehicle parts and being strangled by his seat belt,” his lawyers said.

Jackson’s team said he suffered severe injuries, including a shattered and dislocated pelvis that had to be reconstructed and has never been the same. They said he couldn’t work at all for a year and a half and still can’t return to his old job because he has difficulty walking or sitting for extended periods of time.

The defense disputed whether Jackson couldn’t work and suggested that his primary care doctor cleared him to return.

But the plaintiffs team countered that it was his orthopedist who made the determination about his inability to work.

Charter also suggested that Jackson made the wrong decision to run over the ladder rather than try an avoidance maneuver. “There were no cars to the left,” the defense team said in a summary for the court. That summary also tried to separate the crash from the ladder a bit: “At some point after running over the ladder, Plaintiff lost control of his vehicle and crashed into the embankment.”

And Charter noted that its driver had called 911 and tried to remove the ladder from the interstate.

But Jackson’s team argued that the ladder should have been properly secured to the van so that it wouldn’t have fallen off on the highway.

“This case represents a complete failure of a company’s safety policies,” Glover said. “Charter paid lip service to safety but didn’t actually apply those policies or pass along crucial information to its employees. This verdict sends a message that companies must act responsibly to ensure the safety of their employees as well as to ensure the public is safe on the roadways they share.”

The case is Jackson v. Charter Communications, No. 17C-3714-4.