The Union Pacific Railroad will get a new trial to bring up the role a 16-year-old girl and her boyfriend might have played when her stalled car was hit in a crossing in Castle Rock in 2002, the state Supreme Court said today.
Before it lost an $11.1 million verdict in a 2005 trial, the railroad was barred from arguing the level of responsibility that Maureen “Missy” Martin bore for being in the train’s path when her car stalled.
Her boyfriend at the time, 17-year-old Vinny Veruchi, was following and used his pickup truck to push her out of the way of the train, but might have put her more directly into the train’s path, the defense is prepared to argue in its appeal, according to its Supreme Court arguments.
The verdict is the costliest against a railroad in Colorado history.
Martin was in a coma for five weeks and left brain-damaged.
The jury awarded her $6 million for future medical expenses, $350,000 for permanent impairment, $150,000 for pain and suffering, and $600,000 for past medical expenses. The railroad was also hit with $4 million in punitive damages.
The Martin family sued claiming that engineer, Dannie Dolan, was to blame, and the jury agreed that the crossing at Front and Fifth streets was dangerous, and the train should have been able to stop before the collision.
The lower courts had refused to allow Union Pacific to argue “comparative negligence” based on amendments to the state’s premise liability law.
“Because the premises liability statute, when construed in context, does not mandate that the damages resulting from the railroad’s negligence be assessed without regard to the negligence of the injured party or fault of a nonparty,” the high court ruled.
“This decision arose out of a tragic accident that continues to very deeply affect everyone involved,” Union Pacific spokesman Tom Lange said in a statement Tuesday. “While it is unfortunate that justice sometimes moves slowly, we are grateful that the Colorado Supreme Court found that Union Pacific had been denied a fair trial and ordered a new trial where the responsibility of all parties to the accident will be considered.”
Missy’s father, Dave Martin, said Monday afternoon called news of another trial “absolutely unfortunate.”
“It’s been hard on the family and especially our daughter,” he said. “We keep hoping to get to the end, but now it lloks like it’s going to keep continuing.”
He said his daughter, now 23, has weakness, similar to a stroke, on her left side, walks with a cane and has significant memory loss.
She is unable to work, but hopes to start a nonprofit run by family and friends to help youth and raise money for scholarships.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
