A jury has awarded nearly $3 million to a Duluth woman after finding that a state street sweeper was moving too slowly and was to blame for an auto accident on Interstate 35.
It is one of the largest monetary awards issued by a jury in Duluth history.
The six-woman, two-man St. Louis County jury deliberated about 5½ hours before returning a verdict at about 11 p.m. Wednesday in favor of plaintiff Bobbie Wakefield, 29. She was driving a van for Glory Shine Janitorial Cleaning when the Sept. 17, 2002, accident occurred near Thompson Hill.
Jurors determined that the Minnesota Department of Transportation street-sweeping crew was negligent and a direct cause of Wakefield’s accident. They also found Wakefield negligent but said her negligence was not a direct cause of the accident.
Wakefield was awarded $1.25 million for future health-care expenses; $675,000 for future pain, disability, and emotional distress; $650,000 for future loss of earning capacity; $200,000 for past pain, disability and emotional distress; $158,000 for past health-care expenses; and $28,000 for past wage loss.
The total award against Auto Owners Insurance Co. is $2,961,000.
“Bobbie is very grateful to the jury for its extraordinary service,’’ said Duluth lawyer Stephanie Ball, who represented the plaintiff in the six-day trial before Judge Eric Hylden.
“The size of the verdict is a reflection of the jury recognizing the severity of Bobbie’s injuries, including a mild traumatic brain injury, and the ef
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