An Idaho Springs man was awarded $18.5 million for catastrophic injuries he suffered when a driver drunk left a mountain road and slammed into him as he was laying in his driveway, changing the oil in wife’s car.

SAVAGE v. GUY and RUSZKOWSKI
Homeowner in His Own Driveway When Jeep Crushes Him.
Court: DISTRICT COURT, CLEAR CREEK COUNTY, STATE OF COLORADO
Plaintiff’s Counsel: Chalat Hatten Koupal & Banker PC

Facts

Paul Savage, 46, was changing the oil on his wife’s car in their driveway when a drunk driver flew off the road and slammed into him. As a result of the accident, Mr. Savage is now in a wheelchair and will never walk again except “more than a few heavily assisted steps at a time” and is a “functional paraplegic.” He has incurred more than $4.3 million in medical bills and is expected to have another $4.9 million the rest of his life. Paul Savage was head waiter at the Alpenglow Stube at Keystone at the time.

Clear Creek District Court Judge Russell Granger awarded Paul and Pam Savage $18.5 million after hearing the evidence during a trial to the bench. Judge Granger assessed the award against the driver, Kevin Ruszkowski, 24; the owner of the Jeep, Randall Guy; and Guy’s son, Justin Guy, 20, who had allowed Ruszkowski to drive the vehicle. Ruszkowski had no license because his driving privileges had either been suspended or revoked for prior driving misconduct.

The impact of the crash crushed Paul Savage. The Jeep, which became airborne, smashed into the Savage’s house. Both Ruszkowski and Guy fled the scene but were apprehended a short time later.

Judge Granger said he was assessing Ruszkowski $1 million in punitive damages both for “driving the Jeep while drinking and smoking marijuana and for fleeing the scene of a collision amid the screams of his victims.” In fining Justin Guy, who was a passenger in the Jeep, another $1 million, Granger said he permitted Ruszkowski to drive his Jeep despite knowing that Ruszkowski had been drinking and smoking marijuana all day.

Ruszkowski pleaded guilty to vehicular assault/DUI and leaving the scene of an accident. He was sentenced to six years on vehicular assault/DUI and four years on leaving the scene. The sentence was later reduced to four years of intense supervised probation after he successfully completed boot camp.

Justin Guy was convicted of obstructing government operations and sentenced to 40 hours of useful public service and 12 months of unsupervised probation.

Read the Order and Judgment

A 17 year-old skier was night skiing down Eagle’s Swoop, an open intermediate slope at Wintergreen ski resort in Nelson County, Virginia. On the night of the accident, a snow groomer emerged from the tree line on skier’s left of Eagle’s Swoop, pivoted uphill, and then began driving about 300′ straight uphill close to the tree line and against the direction of skier traffic, while the ski run was open to the skiing public. Client came over the crest of the pitch, up which the snow groomer was ascending. She avoided the escorting snowmobile, lost control, fell and slid at high speed about 90 feet into the blade of the groomer. She sustained a comminuted fracture to her left humerus, a fracture of her left elbow and a non-displaced pelvic fracture. She also sustained a severe right frontal skull fracture. She went into respiratory arrest at the scene and was resuscitated by the patroller who had been riding the snowmobile. She was evacuated by helicopter to the trauma center. Her orthopedic injuries healed, but her skull fracture resulted in a permanent brain injury with extensive loss of function.

Plaintiff contended that the policy of bringing the groomer out into the slope, through a break in the tree line, pivoting uphill, and then driving the groomer uphill against skier traffic was unreasonably dangerous. Moreover, there was a blind area where the groomer was moving: from uphill, as she descended, a skier’s visibility of the run on which the groomer was moving was either obscured or partially obscured. The ski area operator specifically approved the policy of moving groomers on open slopes with an escorting snow mobile but prohibiting actual grooming on open ski slopes. The case was tried in Circuit Court for the County of Albemarle, Virginia.

The jury awarded $8.3 million. The Supreme Court of Virginia dismissed the Defendant’s Petition of Appeal on July 7, 2005. Jim Chalat co-counseled the case with Bryan Slaughter of Michie Hamlett Lowry Rasmussen & Tweel, of Charlottesville, Virginia.

On September 20, 2009 Forrest Walker was driving his 1998 Ford Explorer.  He was stopped at the intersection of Arapahoe Avenue and Cherryvale Road in Boulder. Walker’s Explorer was rear-ended. His driver’s seat malfunctioned, and he was thrown backwards sustaining head and neck injuries.

Claiming that the Explorer’s seat was a defectively designed, Walker sued Ford. The first trial ended on March 25, 2013 in a verdict for Mr. Walker and against Ford.  The 2013 jury determined that Ford was liable for damages in the amount of $2,915,971.36.  Ford successfully appealed that verdict to the Colorado Court of Appeals, and then to the Colorado Supreme Court.  The high court ruled that the trial court had improperly instructed the jury on the correct test to apply to a finding of product liability. The Court threw out the verdict and the judgment against Ford and ordered a second trial to be conducted.

On March 1, 2019 a Boulder County District Court jury returned a verdict in favor of Forrest Walker, against Ford Motor Company in the net amount of $2,929,871.20.  With pre-judgment interest and costs the value of the judgment will rise to approximately $6.5 million. Mike Thomson of Purvis Gray Thomson chaired the trial and partner Evan Banker of Chalat Hatten & Banker second-chaired.

Johnny Kotun, age 28, was an expert recreational skier. On March 25, 2007 at 4:00 PM, Kotun was traversing along a lower cat walk across the “Wilbere cutoff” and was headed toward one of the lower parking lots at Snowbird Ski Resort. Defendant, a 16-year-old off-duty junior ski instructor, was descending the cutoff, directly under the Wilbere chair lift. Defendant took a jump off of a transition, and performed a 360. He landed, carved two wide arc turns and collided at high speed into Kotun. Kotun was seen and heard waving his arms and shouting at defendant to avoid him in the moments before the collision. At impact, Kotun was ejected from his skis and thrown into a nearby tree. Defendant also went airborne into the tree. About 25′ from the point of impact was a large, orange SLOW banner. The testimony from witnesses (including chairlift passengers who reported to the scene) and the defendant formed a basis for our expert to establish a minimum speed at point of impact > 42 mph.

Defendant sustained a non-displaced pelvic fracture, a concussion (no helmet) and bruising to his kidneys and spleen. He recovered without any impairment.

Kotun sustained mandibular and maxillary fractures. Although he was wearing a helmet, Kotun also sustained an intra cerebral and frontal lobe hemorrhage, and a severe shear injury.

He recovered from the facial fractures but is now hemi-plegic on his left side, and has significant cognitive and speech impairments. His ability to live independently and earn an independent living has been lost.

The parties settled for the policy limits of $1.5 Million. A significant portion of the settlement payment was structured. The case was filed in Salt Lake County District Court and local counsel on the case were Craig Adamson and Craig Hoggan of Dart Adamson and Donovan of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Theresa Seto, a 47 year old mother of five, underwent gallbladder removal surgery by Dr. Michael Fraterelli, M.D. at the Medical Center of Aurora.

A doctor’s goal in a gallbladder removal surgery is to identify the cystic duct, clip it, and remove the gallbladder. The cystic duct runs from the gallbladder to the common duct. It is the only duct that joins the gallbladder. The common bile duct never joins the gallbladder. Cutting the common duct is life-threatening. There is no meaningful difference in the appearance of the two ducts. The ducts are identifiable only by where they run. The common duct never joins the gallbladder. The cystic duct is the only duct that runs to the gallbladder.

Dr. Fraterelli failed to conclusively identify the cystic duct, and chose not to take the steps required of reasonably careful surgeons to conclusively identify the cystic duct before cutting. He assumed he had identified the correct duct, and cut the common duct instead of the cystic duct, causing significant injury to Ms. Seto.

Dr. Fraterelli refused to accept responsibility for his actions. Evan Banker of Chalat Hatten & Banker, together with the Sean Olson of the Olson Law Firm, represented Ms. Seto at trial, where a jury found Dr. Fraterelli liable for medical malpractice. The jury returned a verdict for Ms. Seto and against Dr. Fraterelli for $1.04 million. See Seto v. Fraterelli.

M.B., age 21 was a helmeted passenger on a motorcycle when a car driven by Ms. Robb, an elderly lady from
South Carolina, made a left hand turn and crashed into her. Robb was in a rented car and was given a traffic
citation at the scene of the accident. M.B. was taken to Sky Ridge Medical Center by ambulance and remained
there for two weeks. She was admitted into ICU for a lacerated liver, knee injury and broken hand.

She initially engaged a high-volume, “TV advertising” law firm but felt that “she was not being treated fairly or
communicated with properly.” Her matter involved both a criminal and civil side. Her claims were significant
for huge medical bills and lost income as a personal trainer. Insurance coverage was complicated with low
policy limits on the rental, and two other insurance policies providing coverage for the accident.

Partner Russell Hatten represented M.B. and achieved a $500K settlement on her behalf.