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High Court upholds $18.6 million award over crash injuries LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday upheld an $18.6 million award to a Lincoln woman who was paralyzed from the neck down in a rollover crash. The court ruled in a case involving Penny Shipler, 38, of Lincoln, who was paralyzed in 1997 when the Chevrolet Blazer in which she was riding left U.S. Highway 34 near Lincoln and rolled several times. Her attorneys argued that Shipler would have escaped such serious injury had General Motors' Chevrolet division built the 1996 Blazer with a sturdier roof. "In that single moment, Shipler turned from a vibrant 30 year-old woman, actively caring for her three young children, to a wheelchair-bound invalid facing a future of helpless paralysis and continuing debilitating pain and depression," lawyers Dan McCord and Michael Piuze said in briefs submitted in the case. McCord hailed the ruling. "This is just a miracle for her," McCord said. "She is without so much that she really needs in terms of the quality of her life ... adequate care, adequate transportation, adequate medical supervision. "She's just been living on the edge since the day of this accident," he said. "It's going to be godsend to her." GM argued that Lancaster County District Judge Steven Burns committed several errors, including refusing to allow the jury hear evidence that the driver of the Blazer, Kenneth Long, had been drinking before the accident. GM also argued that Shipler was negligent for knowingly riding with him. Burns did not rule on whether Shipler's actions contributed to the accident. Instead, he ruled that the initial crash had nothing to do with Shipler's injuries. "The trial court concluded that because Shipler had alleged that her quadriplegia was due entirely to GM's defective design, which caused a `second collision,' and because Long had admitted liability for the initial collision, evidence of alcohol consumption was inadmissible evidence not relevant to any disputed fact," wrote Judge John Wright for the high court. "The crashworthiness theory, by its terms, assumes that manufacturers know accidents involving their vehicles will occur and that `any participation by the plaintiff in bringing the accident about is quite beside the point,' " he said. "Any negligence by the driver of the vehicle, or even by the plaintiff himself, in connection with the original crash cannot be used by the manufacturer in defending against the ... claim." On appeal, GM argued that the jury award "resulted from passion and prejudice." GM also said that Burns erred by allowing Shipler's lawyers to introduce evidence of approximately 40 other Blazer rollover accidents that happened under markedly different circumstances. GM also said that when the jury was deadlocked after several days of deliberations, Burns told them "a deadlock would be disappointing and a waste and reminded them that only 10 jurors need agree." The jury returned a verdict three days later. The high court rejected those arguments. In a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the Nebraska Association of Trail Attorneys, lawyer Jeffry Patterson discounted GM's argument that Shipler should have been held partially negligent for riding with Long because she knew he had been drinking. He said that conflicts with state law and "GM's duty to produce a reasonably crashworthy vehicle." Shipler also sued Long. The award was made jointly against General Motors and Long. Long sustained broken ribs and other injuries. Authorities later charged him with driving while intoxicated.
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