A Dallas County jury has found a real estate developer guilty of negligence and awarded more than $860 million in damages to the estate and family of a woman who was killed nearly four years ago after a crane crashed into her apartment building.
"Every day is a hard day because she doesn't have her daughter, but hopefully, this verdict will help bring her at least some measure of peace that she can go forward knowing that her daughter's life mattered," said Jason Itkin, lead attorney for the mother whose daughter was killed.
In June 2019, 29-year-old Kiersten Smith was in her Old East Dallas apartment at the Elan City Lights when a summer storm sent a crane crashing into her building.
Smith, her family said, was in the process of planning a wedding and was sitting on a couch while her fiancé cooked a meal when the crane smashed through her roof, killing her.
Her parents, Michele Williams and James Kirkwood, filed a lawsuit alleging gross negligence on the part of the developer, Greystar, and Bigge Crane and Rigging, the company that leased the crane and operator to the developer.
The multiple attorneys representing Smith's family, Michael Lyons of Lyons & Simmons, LLP, Jonathon Clark of Glasheen, Valles & Inderman, LLP, and Jason Itkin of Arnold & Itkin, argued from the beginning that the crane was not left in a position to handle predicted severe weather on that Sunday.
They said if the crane was allowed to "weathervane" meaning move with the direction of the wind, like other cranes in Dallas, it would have been able to take the brunt of the windy conditions.
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Both Greystar and Bigge said the collapse was due to operator error, though each said the other was responsible for the operator and equipment.
Bigge argued that they loaned the crane and operator to Greystar and per their agreement, Greystar was responsible for supervising the equipment and operator.
After deliberating more than six hours on Wednesday, the jury agreed with Bigge's argument, and they were not found negligent.
"It was not caused by anything that Bigge did, and again Bigge of course extends its total condolences to the family," said Darrell Barger, lead attorney for the crane company after the verdict came down.
However, the jury found Greystar guilty of negligence. Attorneys for the company declined to comment after the verdict.
As part of the judgment, the jury awarded Smith's mother $50 million for loss of companionship, $140 million for mental anguish, $50,012,006 for future mental anguish and another $100 million. The jury awarded Smith's father $3 million for loss of companionship, $7 million for mental anguish, $4 million for future mental anguish and an additional $6 million.
Plus, there was a total of $500 million awarded to the estate of Kiersten Smith.
"It tells you that the jury understood the value of the relationships that Kiersten brought into this world. They understood that she was a really amazing, special person that made the people around her better, and I think the jury got to see how Kiersten’s life mattered and how much she's missed. And so I think that's what they did when they tried to figure the damages," said Itkin.
Itkin explained the importance of one of the damaged figures which was a specific amount of $50,012,006.
"That $12,006 means a lot, that was Kiersten’s apartment number. And one of the things that was very important to Michele was that nobody sent her a card, nobody said they were sorry, they didn’t even know her name, but now they’ll at least know her apartment number," said Itkin.
He said overall, the family hopes this trial serves as a reminder to companies in regard to following safety procedures.
"Michelle hopes and James hopes that something like this never happens again. There was so many different safety violations, that when you start peeling it back and you wonder, how does this happen at construction sites, especially where sites that are around where people live, where people play, where people eat, where people go to sleep at night? And so hopefully, companies will learn a lesson from this and say we need to make sure that we're following the rules. We're following the regulations; that it's not just about profit. It's not just about speed, but it's also about doing things the right way," said Itkin.
The case lasted nine days and closing arguments lasted several hours, but even though the civil trial is now over, Itkin said every day remains painful for his client who is without her daughter.
"It's not over because for Michele, today's a big day, but every day she's going to be missing her daughter. There's a lot of legal things that need to happen within the court system. And I'm sure there'll be motions and all sorts of things, but for right now, for today, we just want to be thankful for what the jury has done and thankful that at least for today, that Kiersten's life mattered and that we held Greystar accountable," said Itkin.
