ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Fla. Jury Awards $120M To Man Paralyzed In Truck Crash
Law360 (May 7, 2021, 9:16 PM EDT) A Florida jury has awarded $120 million to a man who was permanently paralyzed after a Gainesville Regional Utilities employee in an SUV drove through a stop sign and collided with a truck he was riding in, with the jury finding no fault on the part of the plaintiff.
The jury s Thursday verdict for Jacob T. Rodgers includes $15 million in past damages and more than $99.68 million in future damages for bodily injury, pain and suffering, disability, physical impairment, disfigurement, mental anguish and inconvenience or loss of the capacity for the enjoyment of life.
A state agency’s bid to protect water levels at Clay County’s shrunken Keystone Heights lakes is getting pushback from utilities including JEA, which on Monday could challenge plans that depend on pumping water through a 17-mile pipeline.
JEA likes the St. Johns River Water Management District’s plan to build the pipeline from Black Creek but worries it could be stuck paying an “inequitable” bill for $13 million.
“While we support the project … we have to do that with the customers in mind and what the financial impact might be,” CEO Jay Stowe told his board before it gave him a free hand last week to challenge the water agency (if needed) over a proposed rule to safeguard water levels in Lake Brooklyn and Lake Geneva.