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Soonerus
1/31/2012, 10:42 PM
Oklahoma Supreme Court upholds jury verdict for Toby Keith's family
The state's high court sided with a $2.8 million judgment awarded to Toby Keith's mother and her children in the traffic death of Keith's father, H.K. Covel.
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BY MICHAEL MCNUTT [email protected] ** 30
Published: January 31, 2012
The state Supreme Court on Tuesday overruled an appellate court and reinstated a $2.8 million judgment awarded to country music star Toby Keith's mother and her children in the traffic death of the Norman singer's father.
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Judgment reinstated in Toby Keith's father's death
01/31/2012 The Oklahoma Supreme Court has reinstated a $2.8 million judgment for the family of country music star Toby Keith in the 2001 interstate crash that killed...
The defendants in the case, a Tulsa bus company and an Arizona insurance company, had successfully appealed the 2007 McClain County jury verdict to the state Court of Civil Appeals. The appellate court reversed the verdict with directions to enter judgment for the defendants, Elias and Pedro Rodriguez, doing business as Rodriguez Transportes, and Republican Western Insurance Co. The Covels appealed to the state Supreme Court.
During the jury trial, an expert in accident reconstruction testified that a bus with properly working brakes would have slowed enough so the collision would not have been as severe and Keith's father, H.K. Covel, would not have died in the 2001 accident. The defendants did not object to that testimony during the trial, according to the Supreme Court's opinion.
The Supreme Court voted 8-1 to reinstate the jury's verdict.
After a five-day trial, jurors unanimously found against the bus company and the insurance company, and awarded the Covel family members $2.8 million and $5,000 in punitive damages. According to evidence presented at the trial, the charter bus owned by the Rodriguezes was in need of brake work and the owners had been advised of the brake problem before the March 2001 accident on Interstate 35 near Goldsby.
Covel, who was from Moore, was driving north on Interstate 35 when his pickup was bumped by another vehicle, knocking it across the median, according to testimony during the trial. The pickup collided with a southbound charter-type bus carrying 21 passengers, including the owners. The bus was in the outside southbound lane and Covel's pickup and the bus collided almost head-on.
Initially it was speculated that Covel might have suffered a medical condition, causing his truck to veer out of control. But lawyers for Covel's family asserted that Covel's truck had been bumped from the rear by another driver.
Covel's widow, Carolyn Joan Covel, and her children, Tonni Covel, Toby Keith Covel and Tracy Kaye Covel, alleged H.K. Covel would not have died if the bus had been equipped with properly working air brakes.
The bus company said its bus was not the cause of the accident and that the driver was confronted with a sudden and unavoidable accident. The bus company maintained that even if the brakes were defective it was merely a condition and not a cause of the accident.
Chief Justice Steven Taylor, in a dissenting opinion, wrote that the brakes on the bus “had absolutely nothing to do with this collision.”
“It is undisputed that the bus was obeying all traffic laws and had brakes that met all federal standards,” Taylor wrote. “This was a sudden, instantaneous and unavoidable event. No matter what kind of brakes the bus may have had, there is nothing the bus driver can do about a flying car instantly appearing from the other side of the highway.
“It is fundamentally unfair for the bus insurance company to be required to pay over $2.8 million because Mr. Covel lost control of his vehicle,” he wrote, saying he agreed with the Court of Civil Appeals that the traffic expert's opinions were not based on scientific foundation and were an assertion insufficient to support the huge verdict.
Justice James Edmondson, writing the majority opinion, said the damages awarded were not excessive. The plaintiffs asked the jury to award $1.7 million per plaintiff, or $6.8 million.
“The jury awarded considerably less,” he wrote.
Edmondson wrote that it was improper for the Court of Civil Appeals to disregard the testimony of the accident reconstruction expert. Lawyers for the Covel family argued that the defendants' failure to object to his testimony waived contentions that his conclusions were not supported by proper methods.
“Objecting would also have provided the district court with the opportunity not only to make a ruling on the accuracy and admissibility of the challenged testimony, but also to clarify that testimony,” Edmonson wrote.
“It is the responsibility of the opposing party to establish that the expert is beyond his expertise or, if within his general expertise, that he has failed to provide the proper basis or foundation for his opinions,” he wrote.
Evidence from Pedro and Elias Rodriguez and the bus driver showed that no pretrip inspection of the bus was done and they did not have commercial drivers' licenses, Edmondson wrote. The driver testified by deposition that he had not received any specialized training for driving a bus. Elias Rodriguez stated that he had the brakes repaired in Mexico, but there were no repair tickets or receipts that the repairs were done.


Read more: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-supreme-court-upholds-jury-verdict-for-toby-keiths-family/article/3644999#ixzz1l68ldGby

olevetonahill
1/31/2012, 10:49 PM
Is this the end of the deal Or can they take to to a Fed. court for more appeals ?

hawaii 5-0
1/31/2012, 10:52 PM
I reckon he'll be writin' a song about it pretty soon.

5-0

Soonerus
1/31/2012, 10:55 PM
It is over 5mm....

olevetonahill
1/31/2012, 10:57 PM
It is over 5mm....
Good deal

nighttrain12
1/31/2012, 11:03 PM
Why didn't they sue the driver of the car that bumped his daddy from behind and in to the wrong lane of traffic? Did they not have any money?

achiro
1/31/2012, 11:32 PM
Why didn't they sue the driver of the car that bumped his daddy from behind and in to the wrong lane of traffic? Did they not have any money?
Yeah, somebody is going to have to explain to me how a bus driving south on an interstate is at fault when someone crosses the median and hits them head on in their lane?

Memtig14
2/1/2012, 01:19 AM
“It is undisputed that the bus was obeying all traffic laws and had brakes that met all federal standards,”

I like Toby.......but this is BS and nothing more than going after money. I don't like Toby as much now.

StoopTroup
2/1/2012, 02:42 AM
“It is undisputed that the bus was obeying all traffic laws and had brakes that met all federal standards,”

I like Toby.......but this is BS and nothing more than going after money. I don't like Toby as much now.

Did you read this?


The Supreme Court voted 8-1 to reinstate the jury's verdict.
After a five-day trial, jurors unanimously found against the bus company and the insurance company, and awarded the Covel family members $2.8 million and $5,000 in punitive damages. According to evidence presented at the trial, the charter bus owned by the Rodriguezes was in need of brake work and the owners had been advised of the brake problem before the March 2001 accident on Interstate 35 near Goldsby.

I wasn't selected for a jury last year as I stated that I felt it was everyone's responsibility to keep their vehicle well maintained before putting your key into the ignition and deciding to roll out into traffic. At least I think that's why they didn't pick me. The other folks didn't answer as extensively as I did to the question. I remember the one Atty looking at me like "Why the heck did you bring that up?" I looked back at him with my "Why the hell would you ask me a question like that when you know I used to run a repair shop" eyes. :D

Chuck Bao
2/1/2012, 04:20 AM
It just appears to me that one lawyer is just better than the other lawyer. The whole reinstatement of the judgment seems to hinge on why the defendents' lawyer didn't originally object to the expert testimony in the first case.

It's either that or the lesson should be to not get into a legal battle with a Oklahoma C&W singer.

cleller
2/1/2012, 09:09 AM
So Garth won his case, Toby is now a winner....

I think its time for George Jones to sue Jack Daniels.

FirstandGoal
2/1/2012, 11:38 AM
So I have a question here. For those who think this is a BS case, it is only because one of the people suing happens to be famous?

Midtowner
2/1/2012, 11:47 AM
It just appears to me that one lawyer is just better than the other lawyer. The whole reinstatement of the judgment seems to hinge on why the defendents' lawyer didn't originally object to the expert testimony in the first case.

It's either that or the lesson should be to not get into a legal battle with a Oklahoma C&W singer.

Pretty much. This thing might've gone the other way had the defense attorney made proper objections. Your attorney's conduct at trial matters.

C&CDean
2/1/2012, 12:24 PM
Why didn't they sue the driver of the car that bumped his daddy from behind and in to the wrong lane of traffic? Did they not have any money?

I personally know the lady that was driving the car that allegedly bumped Toby's dad's car. She's already been to court and settled. I don't think she paid anything though. She also states she never hit him, there's no damage to her vehicle, and that she never saw the wreck or knew it happened until the cops came because somebody gave them her license number. She's a great gal who was seriously injured a couple years ago in a car wreck when she hit a tree by her house in Pauls Valley. Both femurs broken, internal injuries, crushed feet, head injuries, etc.

Maybe she did hit him and karma's a bitch?

Midtowner
2/1/2012, 01:05 PM
Why didn't they sue the driver of the car that bumped his daddy from behind and in to the wrong lane of traffic? Did they not have any money?

Well, that's been "fixed" with recent tort reform, but this was filed before that. The concept is joint and several liability. In the past (under this case), an injured Plaintiff sues everyone involved, gets a judgment and then can go after whoever has the deepest pockets and let the deep pockets worry about collecting from everyone else. That sort of philosophy favored making Plaintiffs whole over protecting Defendants from paying more than their fair share.

Now, the jury will decide what % liable the Defendant is, then whatever that % is, that's the max that Defendant can be allowed to pay.

yermom
2/5/2012, 11:44 AM
So I have a question here. For those who think this is a BS case, it is only because one of the people suing happens to be famous?

i'd have to see the numbers. i mean was there like 200 feet in between the truck and bus and it couldn't slow down because of the brakes?

but if they had a guy without a CDL driving the bus, it seems like they are asking for trouble.

if you had a properly trained and licensed driver behind the wheel, then maybe you can say they did everything they could have to prevent an accident

my gut still kinda smells BS on this deal though