It was a chilly morning on February 6, 2023. In Hanford, California, a city-owned Ford F-450, operated by a City of Hanford employee — a tree trimmer — cruised southbound on 13th Avenue. Dangerously, the driver wasn’t paying attention to the road ahead, especially the stop sign at the upcoming intersection with Houston Avenue. At 51 miles an hour, he barreled into the junction, slamming into a 1998 Ford Ranger. Metal crumpled and shards of glass flew as the municipal truck dragged the small pickup along the thoroughfare. Inside the pickup, two sisters, Gayle Dutton (89) and Barbara Musick (81), had just left their home and were traveling up Houston Avenue to the post office to mail out some bills. The first intersection on their route, crossing 13th Avenue, was uncontrolled in their direction, so they had the right of way. They were driving around 33 miles per hour when the City of Hanford truck broadsided them. The sisters suffered catastrophic injuries ranging from hematomas and lacerations to fractures, collapsed lungs, and traumatic brain injuries.
The two women were rushed to the hospital. Barbara suffered cervical fractures, lumbar damages, fractured ribs, a collapsed lung, a fractured sternum, a tibial fracture that caused permanent disfigurement of her tibial plateau, and a mild-moderate traumatic brain injury. Gayle’s injuries were even worse. She spent two weeks in a coma as she dealt with cervical fractures, lumbar damages, fractured ribs, a degloving injury to her right hand, a collapsed lung, a pelvic fracture, a humerus fracture that caused permanent disfigurement, and moderate-severe TBI.
Ashkahn Mohamadi, a partner at Sweet James LLP, joined forces with colleague and Sweet James managing partner Bobby Taghavi to form a powerful duo of trial lawyers. In the time that followed, the two formed a strong bond with Gayle, Barbara, and their families.
Gayle and Barbara lived separately on a 20-acre plot of land on the outskirts of the city. Gayle was widowed, and Barbara never married. Before the crash, they lived entirely independently and were incredibly physically active, especially for their ages. Gayle maintained a lush garden that grew enough produce to feed her entire family and spent a lot of time painting in her studio. Barbara regularly used her 1960s-era tractor to disc her land and would pain the entire outside of her home, by herself, every couple years.
After the crash, though, both sisters were forced to give up many of the independent activities they loved.
The City of Hanford initially declined fault in the crash, so Bobby and Ashkahn hired an investigator to dive into the case. He recovered video evidence of the crash captured by a nearby home’s security camera. However, the footage they received was of a cell phone capturing the low-resolution video, so the quality was less than ideal. However, it eventually became the cornerstone of the case.
At the first mediation, the City of Hanford offered $4,500,000 to settle the case. Bobby and Ashkhan saw how the city was lowballing them and countered with $7,000,000 for Gayle and $5,000,000 for Barbara. The Defense rejected the counteroffer, noting that Kings County had never resolved a case for eight figures. In addition, the Defendants undervalued Gayle and Barbara’s pain and suffering. Bobby and Ashkahn resolved that this would be the first time Kings County would be properly held to account.
As Bobby and Ashkahn prepared for trial, they turned their sites on the video surveillance footage showing the collision. It was grainy and low-quality. Separately, while the duo had plenty of medical scans and reports to show a jury, the technical language and uncolored imagery failed to communicate just how traumatized the Plaintiffs were. Consequently, they sought out DK Global. Bobby and Ashkahn aimed to present their evidence as clearly as possible.
DK Global produced a video presentation that laid bare the horrific experience inflicted upon the Plaintiffs. First, DK Global improved the quality of the crash video, stabilizing and reframing the shaky cell phone footage. Next, the presentation showed a damages flythrough of each Plaintiff’s injuries. Beginning with Gayle, an animated 3D character depiction showed the bruising, lacerations, and hematoma on the outside of her head and left hand. Then, a skeletal view detailed her nasal bone fracture, as well as breaks to her cervical vertebrae, ribs, right humerus, and pelvis. It also displayed her pneumothorax and lung bullae. Last, the animation dove into Gayle’s brain injuries, beginning with a 12cm hemorrhage, followed by an explanation of how each damaged region of her brain manifested in a range of deficits. Once complete, the animation jumped to Barbara — the abrasions to her arm, the cervical spine trauma, along with her fractured sternum, ribs, and tibia. It revealed her own pneumothorax. Finally, the animation concluded with a depiction of Barbara’s coup contrecoup injury, where the force of the crash caused her brain to ricochet within her skull, damaging multiple areas. As with Gayle, the animation described, lobe by lobe, how her issues with memory, learning, sight, and hearing tied directly to the collision.
The Defense refused to budge from their milquetoast offers, and the case proceeded to a jury trial. Bobby and Ashkahn played the animations alongside their experts’ testimonies. During closing arguments, they asked the jury to give Gayle and Barbara the justice they deserved. When the 12 peers returned, they rendered a verdict of $17,500,000 for Gayle and Barbara — the largest in Kings County history.
Ashkahn Mohamadi is a partner with Sweet James LLP, where he specializes in personal injury, wrongful death, product liability, premises liability, mass torts, class actions, employment, fraud, toxic torts, and commercial torts. Ashkahn has successfully recovered over $100,000,000 dollars for his clients. He is involved with many legal organizations, including the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA), the Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC), and the American Association for Justice (AAJ).
Bobby Taghavi is a managing attorney with Sweet James LLP who has handled over 80 trials to verdict in civil and criminal cases in his 17-year career. Bobby earned a B.A. in Psychology and Criminology from UC Irvine before obtaining his Juris Doctorate from the University of San Diego. He is the president of the Association of Orange County Deputy District Attorneys and also serves on the Board of Directors for the Orange County Attorney’s Association.
