Commercial Truck and Trailer Versus Automobile Collision in Oregon – Jane Doe v. Roe Insurance Co.

Wylie A. Aitken and Casey R. Johnson of Aitken*Aitken*Cohn obtained a $12,000,000 settlement in an insurance bad faith matter involving an insurance policy with $750,000 limits.

The matter arose out of an commercial truck and trailer versus automobile collision in Oregon that left a 30-year-old woman a wheelchair-bound tetraplegic.

An Oregon attorney settled the matter as against the driver of the commercial truck for his $1 million insurance policy limits and referred the remainder of the matter to California for potential further recovery as against the trucking broker and shipper.

Aitken*Aitken*Cohn filed suit against the shipper and the broker, and after five months of litigation, the insurer of the broker pulled its coverage and defense of the broker. A Stipulated Judgment was entered as against the broker, who assigned his rights to Plaintiffs to proceed as against his insurer. Aitken*Aitken*Cohn then filed the bad faith lawsuit against the broker’s insurer to collect on the stipulated judgment.

The matter resolved for $12,000,000 just months before trial after nearly four years of litigation over the course of the two separate lawsuits.