Robert Clifford Gets $14 Million Verdict Against Commonwealth Edison

Nationally prominent trial attorney Robert A. Clifford received a $14 million verdict May 28 on behalf of an Elgin woman who suffered severe injuries in a head-on collision with a Commonwealth Edison truck.

Clifford tried the week-long damages case after Com Ed admitted liability. The jury reached its verdict after just two hours of deliberations.

The Com Ed truck rear-ended a vehicle in an intersection on Route 31 near Crystal Lake, forcing it to catapult into Nancy Epping's car on April 18, 1996. The Com Ed driver took his eyes off the road to reach a pear he had dropped.

This verdict comes on the heels of Clifford's highly publicized $30 million verdict in March on behalf of Rachel Barton, the concert violinist who was dragged by a Metra train and suffered the loss of her left leg and severe degloving injuries and partial loss of her right foot.

Epping, 49, has had approximately 30 surgeries on her left leg, ankle, hip and wrist. Her leg, pelvis and hip were crushed in the accident. She has been wheelchair-ridden the past three years and faces knee replacement surgery in the future.

"The jury clearly felt that Nancy's catastrophic injuries were permanently disfiguring and disabling and that the responsible party should be the one to bear the burden of her economic plight in the future," Cilfford said immediately after the verdict. "The ones who caused such pain and loss to Nancy's quality of life should be responsible for what they did to her, and that's what the jury said to them."

The jury awarded Nancy $13.5 million and Nancy's husband of 30 years, Hugh, $500,000 for loss of society and consortium. Nancy is the Executive Director of the Elgin Public Museum of Natural History, a position she has not been able to fulfill since the accident. Her husband is Executive Director of the Open Door Clinic which provides help to those with AIDS.

Timothy Tomasik, an associate of Clifford Law Offices, helped try the case with Clifford .

Clifford Law Offices is a nationally recognized personal injury firm concentrating in transportation, medical negligence and product liabiliy law.