Ekbatani v. United Independent Taxi Drivers Inc.

Personal Injury and Dangerous Condition

Los Angeles County

Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr

Plaintiff’s Lawyers: Garo Mardirossian, Lawrence Marks, Armen K. Akaragian, Mardirossian & Associates Inc.

Defense Lawyers: Jill Siciliano, Matthew B. Grace, California Department of Transportation; Wayne B. Mason, Mark E. Killingsworth, Karen E. Woodward, Sedgwick LLP (former)

Former UCLA starting offensive lineman Amir “Nick” Ekbatani was sitting astride his motorcycle one night in July 2012, northbound on the Pacific Coast Highway at Diamond Street in Redondo Beach, when he was struck by a taxi driver who failed to yield and made a left turn into him, causing serious injuries.

He lost his left leg below the knee, underwent 13 surgeries and now carries a backpack with supplies that help him treat his leg.

Ekbatani’s attorney Garo Mardirossian overcame tough challenges to attain a $35 million jury award for his client.

“Jurors don’t like to award taxpayer dollars for verdicts like this,” the lawyer said. The cab company’s insurance underwriters at first offered only $800,000, Mardirossian said, based on their mistaken belief that Ekbatani had been driving without lights after the driver said he didn’t see the motorcycle.

But the police had seized the bike’s headlight to preserve it as evidence, which established that Ekbatani’s headlight was on at the time of the accident. Having declined Ekbatani’s initial $1 million policy limit demand on the basis of its mistaken assumption about the headlight, the cab company insurer was exposed to a potential verdict well beyond its policy limit.

When that became clear, the underwriters agreed to settle for $15 million after Mardirossian proposed a so-called Mary Carter agreement that obliged the cab company to participate in the trial on the plaintiff’s side in exchange for part of any funds recovered from non-settling defendants. The ploy is named for a 1967 Florida case.

“Mary Carter agreements are often talked about but are rarely successful,” Mardirossian said. “This one worked. After we settled with the cab company, we were playing with house money so we took a shot at Caltrans.” He said it took more than six months to hammer out a bulletproof Mary Carter deal, the terms of which he had to explain to jurors.

At trial, Mardirossian’s task was to persuade jurors that the accident happened because the Diamond Street intersection features a grade that obstructed drivers’ line of sight and that Caltrans knew about the flaw. He produced three witnesses involved in previous accidents there who testified to the dangerous condition; two of them had complained to Caltrans without result.

“Caltrans came out, found line of sight problems and recommended fixes but never implemented them,” Mardirossian said.

In the middle of the trial, Caltrans lawyers sought to add a design immunity defense based on documents from the 1930s that allegedly showed the agency had plans for a safety upgrade. “They tried to ambush us with those old plans, but the judge agreed with us that their documents were too arcane and misleading,” Mardirossian said.

The jury found the intersection was in a dangerous condition that created a foreseeable risk of accidents, that Caltrans knew about it and that the agency’s negligence led to Ekbatani’s injury. Jurors decided in January 2017 that Caltrans was 70 percent responsible and the driver 30 percent responsible.

The case and his client’s devastating injuries led Mardirossian reluctantly to give up riding his own motorcycle with a few exceptions. “I do drive occasionally, but only rarely now — and very, very carefully,” he said. “Instead, I got myself a Tesla. You can still get that ludicrous acceleration.”

— John Roemer