Polk Jury Awards Woman $65 Million in 2007 Crash
Decision for Kendra Lymon, injured in a 2007 crash, is considered to be among largest verdicts by a Polk county jury.
Published: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 10:46 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at 10:46 p.m.
BARTOW | A jury awarded a 21-year-old Wauchula woman $65 million Wednesday for her injuries in a 2007 crash.
LARGE VERDICTS
Some other recent large jury verdicts in Polk County:
$25.8 million: In August 2007, a wrongful death lawsu.it involving a Mulberry woman who received an erroneous prescription from a Walgreens pharmacy in 2002 ended with a $25.8 million verdict for her family.
$45 million: In July 2007, a Lakeland family received a verdict totaling nearly
$45 million when a truck driver was at fault in the car crash death of Morgan Bryant and serious injury of her mother, Carla.
$50 million: In October 2007, a Lakeland family whose young son suffered severe brain damage when he was hit by a drunken driver was awarded $50 million.
$60 million: Last year, a jury awarded $60 million in a wrongful death lawsuit against Nelson Serrano, convicted of killing four people in a 1997 massacre in Bartow.
Related Links:
The verdict is considered to be one of the largest by a Polk County jury.
Wednesday's verdict stemmed from a traffic crash in Zolfo Springs that left Kendra Lymon in a coma and hospitalized for months.
Lymon had been driving her Dodge Neon on Aug. 21, 2007, when a tractor-trailer owned by an Auburndale-based company, Bynum Transport, struck her car at State Road 35 and State Road 64, according to the lawsuit naming Bynum and the driver.
A telephone call Wednesday evening to Bynum Transport was not returned.
The truck's driver, Robert Bohn, a battalion chief for Polk County Fire Services, was working part-time for the trucking company.
Bohn said in a deposition that he went into the intersection because he had the green light.
But at trial, Lymon's lawyers argued their client had the green light and produced an eyewitness to testify as such.
Despite regaining consciousness and undergoing therapy, Lymon continues to require 24-hour care and supervision, according to her lawyers from Wilkes & McHugh.
"She has suffered these terrible injuries needlessly," said Tampa lawyer Jim Freeman, according to a news release from the law firm. "Kendra Lymon is one of the most deserving clients I've had in 30 years of practice."
Lymon, a graduate of Hardee High School, was attending South Florida Community College and was majoring in psychology, court records show.
She could speak six languages and was working as a residential aide for Florida Institute of Neurologic Rehabilitation, according to the deposition of her mother, Vanessa.
Vanessa Lymon said in her deposition that her daughter's injuries from the crash left her unable to care for herself.
During a normal day, family members must help Kendra Lymon bathe, dress, eat, go to the bathroom and do other routine tasks. She has trouble walking and sometimes requires a wheelchair.
Vanessa Lymon said her daughter isn't able to speak much, and family members read to her, take her to the store and assist her with physical therapy exercises.
"I limit the TV watching because she would become so hypnotized in it she can't hear or see anything else around her," Vanessa Lymon said in the transcript.
[ Jason Geary can be reached at jason.geary@theledger.com or 863-802-7536. ]
