Shantal Gonzales, who lost her baby after a Denver traffic accident, was awarded $364,000 by a Denver jury today.
The award, not the first for Gonzales, was for a bad-faith and breach-of-contract suit against Shelter Insurance Co. and included punitive damages, said Chad Hemmat, Gonzales’ attorney.
In June 2006, a Denver jury awarded Gonzales $100,000 in damages in a wrongful-death lawsuit stemming from the same incident.
Gonzales was 22 weeks pregnant when the baby, Marco Gonzales, was delivered by C-section. He lived one hour and six minutes.
The accident occurred June 19, 2005, at the intersection of South Federal Boulevard and West Kentucky Avenue. Gonzales was riding in a car driven by Veronica Mascarenas. Mascarenas was turning when she was hit by a speeding pickup truck, which then fled the scene. The truck driver has never been found.
Gonzales sued Mascarenas, who blamed the pickup driver for the accident. The jury found that Mascarenas and the pickup driver each had a 50 percent responsibility for the accident. That means that the award to Gonzales was reduced by half, for a total of $50,750.
The wrongful-death lawsuit is being appealed by Shelter, which was Mascarenas’ insurance company.
All told, Gonzales has been awarded more than $500,000 including interest, Hemmat said. He expects that Thursday’s award also will be appealed.
Shelter argued that the baby was a nonviable fetus and therefore should not have been covered under Colorado law.
An attorney representing Shelter could not be reached for comment.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
