Following up on our Mar. 13 and Apr. 25 coverage: “Madison County Circuit Judge Nicholas Byron awarded Amanda Verett a $311,700 default judgment for injuries she allegedly received while holding a Pizza Hut door open for a Troy police officer.” Verett obtained the default judgment against defendant Clarence Jackson; co-defendant Pizza Hut filed a defense, so it will presumably be entitled to face a trial separately. Verett says her shoulder was jarred when Jackson suddenly moved the door or allowed it to move. According to testimony from her husband, she also slipped and fell on ice and snow on her driveway four days later; the couple appear to blame her injuries from that fall on her earlier bad experience with the Pizza Hut door. It’s a small world, lawsuit-wise, in the far-famed Illinois county: the chiropractor who’s been treating Verett, Mark Eavenson of Granite City, “is best-known as the most prolific filer of class action lawsuits in Madison County”. (Steve Gonzalez, “Byron awards $311,700 to Pizza Hut door victim”, Madison County Record, May 16).
Update: Pizza Hut door victim awarded $311K
Following up on our Mar. 13 and Apr. 25 coverage: “Madison County Circuit Judge Nicholas Byron awarded Amanda Verett a $311,700 default judgment for injuries she allegedly received while holding a Pizza Hut door open for a Troy police officer.” Verett obtained the default judgment against defendant Clarence Jackson; co-defendant Pizza Hut filed a defense, […]
3 Comments
I know of the reasonable rule that you lose if you don’t show up, but there must be a “pound of flesh” limit to it. A default settlement of $500 would make sense in this case, not $311K!
There is a limit. It’s called evidence.
The judge performs a “prove-up” hearing without the defendant present and the plaintiff has to prove her damages to the judge and that the defendant is liable for those damages.
The judge is not pulling the $311K out of thin air or simply adopting plaintiff’s number.
Also, at least in California, the defendant has six months from the date judgment is entered to set aside the judgment and allow the defendant to reenter the action.
Getting a default judgment doesn’t mean much. I personally got a $100k default judgment in a Fair Credit Reporting Act case I filed. Funny thing happened about two days after the company got the judgment: They stopped ignoring me and my lawsuit.
We “resolved it amicably” after the judge overturned the default when they responded.