Kansas City partner Patrick Hunt and associate Gonzalo Ventura secured a unanimous defense verdict from a three-member arbitration panel in a claim of wrongful death in Jackson County, Missouri. Claimant sought in excess of $1,500,000 in relief for the injuries and ultimate death of the decedent, alleging that decedent’s injuries were caused by a dangerous condition on the interstate highway decedent was traveling at the time of the accident.
Defense counsel demonstrated that no dangerous condition existed at the time of the accident and that decedent’s injuries were the direct and proximate cause of a non-litigant third-party driver who failed to yield to oncoming traffic. The three-member arbitration panel found that claimant failed to demonstrate a waiver of sovereign immunity and that a non-litigant third-party driver’s failure to yield to oncoming traffic was the direct and proximate cause of the decedent’s injuries.