A $9 million settlement has been reached between Pizza Hut and a young man, Jeremy Damery, in response to a lawsuit Damery filed against the popular pizza chain. The lawsuit itself was filed in relation to an August 2009 accident where Damery, who was two days away from beginning firefighter-paramedic classes, was riding his motorcycle and was hit by a “Las Vegas Pizza Hut” delivery driver. The accident almost killed Damery and forced him to put his dream of attending firefighter-paramedic classes on hold.
A $9 million settlement has been reached between Pizza Hut and a young man, Jeremy Damery, in response to a lawsuit Damery filed against the popular pizza chain. The lawsuit itself was filed in relation to an August 2009 accident where Damery, who was two days away from beginning firefighter-paramedic classes, was riding his motorcycle and was hit by a “Las Vegas Pizza Hut” delivery driver. The accident almost killed Damery and forced him to put his dream of attending firefighter-paramedic classes on hold.
On the day of the accident, Damery was driving “west on Lake Mead Boulevard in the northwest valley, riding a 1990 Kawasaki ZX600-D.” The Pizza Hut delivery driver, Todd McGrath, was “driving a 2002 Mitsubishi Spyder east on Lake Mead Boulevard,” when he “struck Damery’s motorcycle as he tried to turn into the Pizza Hut parking lot, throwing Damery nearly 70 feet.”
For nearly nine years, the pizza chain and McGrath “denied any wrongdoing,” despite the fact that Damery’s lawyer, Robert Eglet, argued that “the driver had to hurry back to the store because of a company policy that requires drivers to return 20 minutes after delivery.” When discussing Pizza Hut’s response to the accident and lawsuit in general, Eglet said: “I’ve never quite seen a company be this brazen and callous and vindictive about how they approached this litigation. It’s unbelievable to me.”
How exactly did the pizza chain react the day of the accident, though? Well, according to Eglet, not even an hour passed after the accident before Pizza Hut “sent accident reconstructionists, known as a ‘rapid response team,’ to the scene in an effort to manipulate evidence in the company’s favor.”
While the pizza chain was busy allegedly manipulating evidence, Damery was left reeling with his injuries. For example, he “spent days paralyzed and months hospitalized, undergoing surgeries to save his life, struggling through rehabilitation on his mangled body, and incurring more than $1.3 million in medical expenses.” Not only did the accident cause his lungs to collapse, but he also “suffered an ‘open book’ pelvic fracture, and his legs had shattered like stems of wine glasses,” according to the lawsuit. As a result of his extensive and severe injuries, “doctors predicted he would need treatment for decades.”
Fortunately, Pizza Hut agreed to pay him a $9 million settlement. It should be noted, though, that this was the second trial regarding the lawsuit. The first trial was set to take place in 2012. However, that trial was “declared a mistrial after a clerk mistakenly sent documents to jurors that they were not supposed to see.” Additionally, sometime later, Pizza Hut also offered Damery a settlement of $250,000, which he declined, saying it was “less than what the company spent on its reconstruction team after the crash.”
Over time, Damery began to feel like he was being strung along by Pizza Hut. In a statement regarding the recent settlement, he said:
“Because I felt like I was being strung along by Pizza Hut the whole time, I was just unsure financially what my life would be. I never really set any expectations because I didn’t want to dream about something and not be able to obtain it. I guess the sky is the limit now.”
Sources:
Pizza Hut pays $9M to settle lawsuit over 2009 Las Vegas crash
JURY VERDICT AGAINST PIZZA HUT IN CASE OF DELIVERY DRIVER COLLISION
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