Insurer must pay $13.6M after hospital death

Hospital settles medical malpractice suits with two families for $5M

SCRANTON / WILKES-BARRE NEWSPAPERS
June 5, 2003

A federal jury on Wednesday awarded an additional $2.75 million in punitive damages to the family of a Pittston woman killed in a collision with a tractor trailer, bringing the total award to $8.46 million.

Colleen Shea, 28, of Renfer Street, was killed on Oct. 19, 2001, when Jerry R. Slyter of Wolcott, N.Y., lost control of his rig after blowing a tire and crossed a median, hitting Shea's 1999 Mitsubishi head on in the southbound lane of Interstate 81 in Susquehanna County.

A jury in the U.S. District Court last week found Slyter was negligent and awarded Shea's family $5.7 million in compensatory damages against Slyter and three trucking firms. The panel also found the trucking firms acted with reckless indifference, which allowed Shea's family to seek punitive damages.

The defendants' attorneys argued the blowout was a sudden emergency from which Slyter could not recover. Shea's attorney, Joseph Quinn, argued Slyter was fatigued, and drove more than the 70 hours per week allowed under federal law.

"It was outrageous neglect," Quinn said. 'He came roaring out of the median and into her lane of travel."

Quinn also filed a motion Thursday seeking $118,405 in interest in addition to the compensatory and punitive damages. A judge will rule on that motion at later date.