Julia Lawson v. Findlay Gin Co., et al.

James Merritt, Jr. (Atlanta, GA) (Trucking) obtained a Dismissal in a commercial vehicle claim. Plaintiff Julia Lawson filed a personal injury lawsuit, claiming that she sustained injuries when the vehicle being driven by her husband in which she was a passenger was allegedly hit by a commercial cotton truck, causing the crash. Ms. Lawson’s Complaint named as defendants the driver of the cotton truck (Ronnie Wilkes), the owner of the cotton truck (Vienna Cotton Co., Inc.), the operator of the cotton truck (Findlay Gin Co.), and their insurer (a direct action against Penn Millers Insurance Co.). Our investigation into the accident revealed that the subject accident actually occurred when the Plaintiff’s husband had been tailgating the cotton truck, and as the cotton truck attempted to make a lawful right-hand turn, the Plaintiff’s husband attempted to illegally pass the cotton truck, driving the Plaintiff’s vehicle partially onto the grass and emergency shoulder of the highway. We also learned that the investigating state trooper found the Plaintiff’s husband to be at fault, and the Plaintiff’s own insurance company had acknowledged fault for the accident and had partially paid Vienna’s property damage claim on the damaged cotton truck. We therefore decided to implement a creative and aggressive defensive strategy whereby we not only answered the Plaintiff’s Complaint, but we also filed a Third-Party Complaint against the Plaintiff’s husband for the remaining property damage to Vienna’s cotton truck which included a plea for punitive damages, and had the husband served with process by the local sheriff, including with a deposition notice and extensive discovery requests as a Third-Party Defendant. We also served on Plaintiff’s counsel an Abusive Litigation Warning threatening to seek damages and fees if the Complaint was not dismissed within 30 days. After reviewing all of the papers we filed and served, Plaintiff’s counsel quickly contacted us and offered to dismiss the Plaintiff’s Complaint with prejudice, if we had agreed to do the same with our Third-Party Complaint and withdraw our abusive litigation warning. Thanks to a unique defensive approach where we went on the offensive, this lawsuit was dismissed only 11 days after it was originally filed.