Robert Hamparyan – Murphy v. State of Cal.
This case arose out of a major motor vehicle collision between 17-year-old plaintiff, Conrad Murphy, and defendant, David Misa, driving a Corky’s Pest Control vehicle, on 4/23/11 at 7:10 a.m. on SR-76. They were traveling in opposite directions when Misa, allegedly attempting to negotiate a blind curve, lost control of his truck and veered off the roadway to the right shoulder.
As a result of this head-on collision, Mr. Murphy suffered life-threatening injuries, leaving him permanently disabled. He continues to have cognitive and emotional behavioral issues, left-sided weakness and difficulty performing the tacks of daily living. The experts on both sides agreed he will never be able to live alone and care for himself again.
Defendant’s vehicle
Caltrans’ defense was that Misa had difficulty navigating back on the road because the drop off was larger than the guidelines set out by the State of California. Those guidelines state that anything over 2″ “could adversely affect a vehicle’s ability to return safely to the road.” The case went to trial against only Caltrans on bifurcated issues of liability and damages.
As to liability, Caltrans was able to put on evidence the roadway is not what caused the accident; it was Misa’s inattentiveness that caused him to first lose control of the truck and that Misa lied about his whereabouts before the accident because he’d gone to a local casino the night before to meet a woman. Caltrans also put on evidence that when Misa’s truck went on the right shoulder, he over-corrected when he returned to the roadway and that’s what caused this collision. Caltrans was also allowed to put on evidence that Misa was convicted of three felonies, that it had no actual or constructive notice of a dangerous condition prior to this accident, that 28,603,000 other vehicles had safely negotiated that road in the three years prior to the collision, and had there been a dangerous condition at the time of the accident, its employees would have noticed it during the many inspections and maintenance that had taken place at or near the location, so a defense verdict was urged.
Caltrans served a 998 offer for $100,000 a year and a half before trial. Prior to trial, Robert had to attend a two-day hearing before the trial judge on the issue of whether prior motor vehicle accidents at the location of the subject accident could be used by Robert in the case. Robert took each of the Caltrans employees through various sections of their own traffic and maintenance manuals, getting them to admit these types of roadway drop-offs accounted for a high number of serious crashes. At this pre-trial hearing, Robert was able to dismantle Caltrans’ traffic engineer expert. Robert was able to show the jury only 6 of the prior 44 accidents at this location to show that Caltrans had notice of the dangerous condition. The defense attorneys spoke very highly of Robert’s professionalism, his skills and his trustworthiness. The jury trial in Judge Stern’s department commenced on November 4, 2014 on the issue of liability only. Several weeks later, the jury returned a verdict finding Caltrans 65% liable for the collision, and Misa 35% liable. Judge Maas was able to get the case settled prior to the damages phase for $7,000,000.