Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray Horton
General nature of claim?
products liability/defective design of a bottle which led to spillage of a flammable liquid which led to serious burns.
There are multiple defendants but one of the companies never filed an answer. I served them, called them and asked them if they were planning on answering, and followed it up with a letter. They told me they had "given it to an attorney". No answer ever filed. Took the default judgment.
Where I am, when you take a default with multiple defendants, it is interlocutory and can be reversed at anytime. So I severed them out (makes the judgment final, but only as to liability...have to prove damages in Court).
So we did that, and got the crazy big judgment. Hard part about collecting it:
1. It seems like a pretty small company, but they did have over a million dollars of revenue last year, so who knows.
2. Insurance is likely only a million or maybe 2
3. Even if they have good insurance, if they failed to notify the insurance company about the lawsuit, the insurance company can deny coverage
The best outcome for me is that they really did give it to a lawyer, and that lawyer was in house with one of the insurance companies and they failed to answer. Then they have to pay up. But I'm sure they will appeal a lot before that. Also, this is partly strategic to get the other defendants to pay up after seeing how my people did in court and see what kind of verdict they might get hit with down the road.