Posted on 03/31/2009 7:58:09 AM PDT by RogerWilko
A California jury has awarded a rider $8.6 million dollars for a motorcycle accident caused by wild pigs.
Dating back to an accident which took place in December 2003 when Adam Rogers, a 45-year-old former karate teacher and champion kickboxer was thrown from his motorcycle after colliding with wild pigs on Highway 1 south of the Carmel River in Monterey County.
A Monterey County jury ordered the state’s Department of Transport to pay $8.6 million to Rogers ruling the state was responsible because officials knew that wild pigs regularly crossed that particular stretch of highway but did nothing to address it.
Rogers, who suffered serious injuries and is now confined to a wheelchair and his wife sued the state Department of Transportation in Monterey County Superior Court.
DOT attorneys argued that the state wasn't responsible for the actions of wild animals and said Rogers was under the influence when he struck them. A test found Rogers had a blood-alcohol level of more than .10 after the crash, but the jury concluded that wasn't a major factor in the crash.
Rogers' attorney, Larry Biegel brought forward the testimony of experts for the plaintiffs who demonstrated the difficulty for anyone, impaired or not, to see wild pigs crossing the highway at night.
After Rogers' accident, the state put up a pig-crossing sign and later began using hunters to control the pig population.
Rogers' wife, Kristin Finn, also was awarded $500,000 for "loss of consortium."
Well then hopefully the market will have recovered some by then.
We have some friends that moved to Tennessee from California three or four years ago. They had a small house — sold it, bought a bigger house in Nashville, and had 200,000 dollars left over for a retirement fund.
3 beers in an hour.
Calling that “drunk” is ludricous.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.