Facts

On May 18, 2005, plaintiff Larry Johnson was on duty as an LAPD motorcycle officer when he attempted to effect a traffic stop on defendant Murad Khudeda in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, on a residential street. The defendant, driving a van owned by him, but in the course and scope of his employment as a driver for defendant Highchoice Healthcare, stopped his van and the plaintiff pulled up behind him with his emergency lights activated.

The defendant put his vehicle in reverse and started backing towards the plaintiff at a slow speed. The plaintiff blasted his siren, but the defendant continued moving towards him, so the plaintiff started manually trying to maneuver his 800-pound police motorcycle backwards, while still straddling it. The plaintiff was unable to avoid being struck by the defendant, and had to be taken from the scene by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, after complaining of severe lower back pain immediately after the accident (in which he was still able to keep the police motorcycle upright).

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
The plaintiff contended that the defendant was negligent in backing his vehicle into the plaintiff's police motorcycle; and that the plaintiff's lower back injury was primarily, if not completely, caused by this accident. The plaintiff also contended that his prior, on-duty accidents and injuries to the back and other body parts, were not so serious as to prevent him from working, and indeed, he was working in a full-duty status on the date of this accident.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS:
The defendant denied ever backing his vehicle into the plaintiff officer, and instead claimed that the officer struck him. The defendant also claimed that the defendant's back injury primarily resulted from his various prior on-duty accidents, that he would not have continued working much longer anyway due to other, unrelated industrial injuries, and that his future claimed loss of earning capacity was far less than claimed.

Settlement Discussions

A demand for a total of $850,000 was first made in May 2007 ($750,000 for plaintiff Larry Johnson and $100,000 for plaintiff Christine Johnson). In July 2007, when defense counsel indicated there was a probable excess policy, the demands were raised to $1.4 million and $100,000, respectively. At the time of the mediation, once it was established that the excess policy was inapplicable to this case, a policy limit demand of $500,000 to cover both plaintiffs was made. However, due to the disputed liability and as an inducement to defendants to settle, a one-time discount of five percent off the policy was demanded ($475,000), which was to expire in ten days. Afterwards, the $500,000 policy limit would still be accepted for another seven days, and if the case were still not settled, plaintiffs would consider the policy "opened up" and would proceed to trial.

Specials in Evidence

$40,000 $103,000; $450,000. $100,000;

Damages

The plaintiff had a poor result from surgery and was limited to permanent light duty, after returning to work, and thereby lost (in addition to his regular and overtime earnings for the 11 months he was totally disabled following the accident), several hundreds of thousands of dollars over the remaining 11 years of his LAPD career, including reduced pension benefits, loss of his hazardous duty motorcycle pay bonus, inability to work off-duty or overtime due to light duty status,. He also suffers from constant pain.

Injuries

Two herniated lumbar discs at L4-5 and L5-S1, approximately 5-6 mm. each, which began causing a drop foot about two months after the accident and resulted in an urgent two-level microdiscectomy and hemilaminectomy surgery, which had a poor result due to formation of scar tissue.

Result

The case settled on the tenth day following mediation, for the amount demanded of $475,000, as to both plaintiffs, out of which $95,000 went to settle the $109,000 workers' compensation lien of plaintiff's employer, the city of Los Angeles, with a waiver of credit against future compensation benefits as part of the negotiated lien settlement.

Other Information

Plaintiff Christine Johnson, a CHP dispatcher, claimed loss of a month's income due to caring for her husband after the accident, and loss of consortium. The plaintiffs elected to structure about 25 percent of their net settlement proceeds.