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Wrongful Death of Teenage Pedestrian Hit by Truck

The lesson of the Harless case is that personal injury claims should be aggressively pursued even while a criminal case arising from the same incident is underway. This claim was settled for $1,000,000 while a criminal trial against the defendant was pending. Shortly after the settlement, the defendant was found not guilty. Had an early settlement not been reached, the not guilty verdict would have seriously diminished the value of the claim. Waiting for a criminal matter to be completed before bringing an injury claim can sometimes be a very bad tactic.

A towing company hired John Rideout, a well-known local drug addict, to drive one of its tow trucks. Rideout had previously been convicted of a series of crimes including:

      Possession of Marijuana,

      Driving While License Suspended (three times),

      Obtaining a Controlled Substance through Fraud,

      Possession of Stolen Property,

      Forgery (twice),

      Theft,

      Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, and

      Delivery of a Controlled Substance (Heroin).

An admitted addict, Rideout shot up with Heroin and smoked Marijuana shortly before operating his tow truck. On arrest, he had fresh track marks on both arms and tested positive for both Heroin and Marijuana. While impaired, Rideout drove his tow truck north on Zell Road in excess of the speed limit. Zell Road is an access road and parallels Interstate 5. He drifted over the center line and struck Landen Harless, a 14-year-old boy who was walking on the other lane with two companions facing traffic and pushing a bicycle. In the 9-1-1 call, John Rideout repeatedly says, "I hit a kid on a bicycle." In other words, he did not even see Landen Harless, who was walking beside his bicycle, not riding it.

Rideout was prosecuted for negligent homicide. While the criminal case was being processed, Dean Brett of Bellingham's Brett & Coats proceeded with a claim against the towing company for negligently entrusting the tow truck to Rideout, claiming they either knew or had a reckless indifference for whom they employed. The tow truck company carried an insurance policy limit of $1,000,000. Fearing a plaintiff verdict, they offered to settle the claim for $950,000. In addition, the Harless' UIM policy paid policy limits of $50,000 for a total plaintiff's recovery of $1,000,000.

Washington damages in child death claims are governed by RCW 4.24.010. Damages are broadly defined to include, "...loss and companionship of the child and for injury to or destruction of the parent/child relationship in such amount as, under all the circumstances of the case, may be just." This broad language has been interpreted to include parental grief, mental anguish, and suffering. Wilson v. Lund, 80 Wn.2d 91 (1971). Significantly, computation of damages is not limited to a child's minority. Balmer v. Dilley, 81 Wn.2d 367 (1972). In addition, medical, hospital, medication and related expenses and loss of services and support are recoverable under RCW 4.20.060, and the present value of the decedent's future net earnings had he suffered a normal life expectancy are recoverable under RCW 4.20.046.

Medical records and bills showed a medical expense of $79,393 for the nearly 12 hours during which Landen struggled to survive. Since he was conscious at the scene, the estate had a claim for pain and suffering in anticipation of death. In Bingaman v. Grays Harbor Community Hospital, 103 Wn.2d 831, 699 P.2d 1230, and old 1995 case, the Washington State Supreme Court upheld a verdict for $412,000 for pain and suffering in anticipation of death over a similarly short time span.

After the settlement was reached, the negligent homicide case proceeded to trial. In a criminal trial, the prosecution must prove all of the elements of the claim beyond a reasonable doubt. The defendant was able to convince the jury that there was a reasonable doubt about whether his intoxication had caused the injury or whether the death had been caused by the boys walking on the traveled portion of the roadway. Consequently, Rideout was found not guilty.

While the effect of a not guilty verdict would have been devastating to the personal injury claim, because the claim was promptly settled for $1,000,000, the family was able to close the personal injury claim without the heart wrenching process of trying the case after the defendant had been found not guilty in the criminal arena.