LEONARD & SHIRLEY MOODY vs. PIMA COUNTY and MICHAEL ELLSWORTH BAKER and CONNIE BAKER, a married couple
| PIMA COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT CAUSE NO. C 20045446 | |
| TOTAL JUDGMENT: | $9,000,000 |
| BREAKDOWN OF JUDGMENT: | |
| LEONARD MOODY | $2,000,000 |
| SHIRLEY MOODY | $2,000,000 |
| PUNITIVE DAMAGES BAKER ONLY | $5,000,000 |
| COMPARATIVE FAULT: | |
| 13% PIMA COUNTY | $520,000 |
| 13% PIMA COUNTY | $520,000 |
| 74% THE BAKERS | $2,960,000 |
| 13% EBONEE MOODY, Deceased | ------------- |
Ebonee Moody, a 14-year old bright and gifted student, musician, and athlete, was struck and killed on August 1, 2004, by Michael Ellsworth Baker as she left a park and crossed Cardinal Avenue. Leonard and Shirley Moody sought justice for the death of their daughter and came to John Osborne for help. Together, they brought a wrongful death case against Pima County and Mr. & Mrs. Baker, partly to force the County to improve the roadway but also to send a powerful message to the community that driving under the influence is deadly. Mr. Osborne received a jury award of $9 Million (before application of comparative fault) for Mr. & Mrs. Moody for the wrongful death of their daughter. The total recovery for the Moody's well exceeded the County's settlement offers.
The central legal issue in the case was the comparative fault between the drunk driver who struck Ebonee, the County who allowed an unreasonably dangerous roadway to exist, and Ms. Moody, who crossed a darkened roadway outside of a marked crosswalk. The County used a reactive (rather than proactive) approach to fix traffic engineering problems, fixing them after accidents, not before. The County relied solely on crash statistics to determine whether traffic improvements were needed.
Problems were apparent in the area of Cardinal Park for some time. Twenty years prior to this accident, when the County put in Cardinal Avenue with a 45 m.p.h. speed limit, the area was unimproved with no development. Subsequently over the years, a large residential area grew along this stretch of roadway. Along with the houses came parks, schools, and a church. Still, with all of these improvements, the County made no effort to improve the roadway to account for the inevitable pedestrian traffic from the residential neighborhoods across Cardinal Avenue to Cardinal Park.
Additionally, a jog in the alignment of the roadway existed that caused drivers confusion. As drivers proceeded southbound, due to the jog in the roadway, they appeared face-to-face with oncoming traffic and at night their headlights. The roadway's swerve to the right caused drivers to hit mailboxes alongside the road frequently.
Still, the County made no effort to fix the roadway or alert drivers to roadway conditions. There was no lighting, no pedestrian amenities for crossing at the park entrance, and inadequate warning signs. Yet, this was certainly an area where the county could expect children to be crossing the road because of the proximity of the park to the residential area.
The County presented a strong defense, refusing to make any offer in settlement until shortly before trial, and even then for an amount smaller than the jury's verdict. The Judge excluded evidence of the mailbox hits, limited severely the number of prior incidents the Moody's could prove, and limited severely evidence regarding the County's own conclusions that the roadway was unsafe in a number of reports.
Even so, the jury agreed with the Mr. Osborne and the Moody's that the County was partially liable for damages. Moreover, the jury justly apportioned the fault and the damages so as to send messages to the County, the drunk driver, and the public that drunk driving must stop, and the County should adopt a more proactive approach to traffic engineering. Even though the drunk driver was uninsured, the Moody's were able to collect over $500,000 from the County for its fault.
