VERDICT: Defense, vehicle drove off road to avoid vehicle stopped for dog… ear/neck/back/shoulder.

Matthew Daniels was traveling south on Hwy 206 east of Kalispell 6/30/15 to a work meeting near Lincoln in a Toyota Tundra truck. After rounding a blind curve he was confronted by a dog that had walked into and then stopped in his lane. According to Daniels, his options were to stop in his lane, drive into the oncoming lane and risk fatal injury to himself and others, drive off the right side of the road and into the ditch (because there was no shoulder), and risk serious injury to himself, or drive through the dog, likely killing it and potentially causing an MVA involving himself and others, and that the only reasonable option was to stop in the lane, which he did. Dalton Demars, whom Daniels had passed earlier, was behind Daniels in a Chevrolet Avalanche. According to Demars, Daniels had passed him exceeding the 60 mph speed limit, gone around a blind corner, and stopped in the southbound lane. When Demars came around the corner a few seconds later he could not stop so he took the ditch, rolled, and was injured. According to Demars, there was enough shoulder to pull off the highway and the ditch was not too steep to drive in. His Avalanche was totaled. He sued Daniels and Daniels’s employer River Design Group alleging negligence. Daniels and RDG asserted that they were not negligent and that Demars’s injuries were caused by his own negligence.

Judge Ortley directed verdict dismissing Daniels at the close of Plaintiff’s case based on the corporate shield doctrine. The jury was not informed of the dismissal of Daniels. He directed verdict at the close of Defendants’ case finding that Daniels had violated §61-8-355(1) (right wheels of vehicle stopped on 2-way road must be close as practicable to right edge of shoulder) and was negligent as a matter of law.

The Kalispell jury found 11-1 that Demars did not prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he was damaged, and that Daniels’s negligence, caused by violation of §61-8-355(1), was a cause of those damages, and 12-0 that Demars did not prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Daniels was negligent in any other manner.

Demars, 29, suffered neck, back, and shoulder injuries and a torn ear.

Plaintiff’s experts: treating providers FNP Laura Hunter, Whitefish, and pain management specialist Camden Kneeland, Kalispell.

Defendants’ expert: forensic engineer Matthew Mecham, Salt Lake City.

Demand, $60,000; offer, $8,000; jury request, up to $300,000; jury suggestion, 0. Jock Schulte, mediator.

Jury deliberated 1½ hours 4th day.

Demars v. Daniels and River Design Group, Flathead DV 15-948, 10/6/16.

Evan Danno & Ashley Danno (Danno Law Firm), Kalispell, for Demars; Christopher Sweeney & Afton Ball (Moulton Bellingham), Billings, for Defendants.