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MY STORY: After losing my sight, I was able to get on with my life thanks to Oregon's courts
By Larry Woody
Note from Don Corson: Our client, Larry Woody, had to rebuild his life after he was left total and permanently blind in both eyes when an 18 wheeler tractor-trailer lost control and smashed into his Toyota. Larry is an example to all of us about being able to continue with our dream.
It started as an ordinary April weekday
morning. A wood chip truck was
heading south on Interstate 5 freeway,
nearing Cottage Grove. I was driving to
work in my little Toyota Celica, heading
north towards Eugene. Neither one of us
knew it then, but the two of us were
about to meet. I would end up
permanently blind as a result of that
meeting.
The truck driver suddenly lost control
of his rig, went across the southbound
lanes, through the dividing median, and
headed into the northbound lanes, right
toward me.
In addition to being an auto mechanic,
I am an amateur race car driver, and those
racing skills probably saved my life. I had
been taught in racing that if I was going
to be in a crash to try and let the
passenger side of the car take the impact.
As the moving tractor-trailer completely
blocked both northbound lanes, I steered
in an attempt to minimize the impact of
the collision. Both of us were going about
60 mph. With only a split second to act,
I brought my car sideways and the
passenger side of the car took the brunt
of the crash. That crash knocked me
unconscious. I later learned that the fi rst
of the truck's two trailers then spun my
car around and the second trailer hit the
rear of my car and spun it around
again.
Dealing with change
I lived, but almost nothing was the
same after that April morning in 2002.
The bones in my face were shattered and
my back was broken. After multiple
surgeries, the doctors were able to salvage
my face, but not my eyes. At 42 years of
age, I needed to learn to do everything
differently: to walk down the street using
a white cane, to read Braille, to use a
computer with adaptive technology, to
read a watch, to take a phone message,
to dress myself in the morning. Some
things I took for granted I will never get
to do as a sightless person, such as
hopping in the car to drive to work or to
go buy an ice cream cone.
I lost my freedom and my
independence in a split second. Now I
have to rely on many other people to do
for me what I used to be able to do
myself.
One thing that didn't change was the
faith and support of my wife, Della. I
appreciate her more every day.
Another thing that didn't change was
who I am inside. I still wanted to work
as an auto mechanic and repair shop
manager. However, I found that
employers were not interested in having
a blind man work on cars or manage their
shops. With life-changing injuries,
mountains of medical bills, no job and
no income, I was faced with the challenge
of putting my life back together.
The legal process
A member of our extended family
worked in a Eugene law offi ce, and she
referred me to an attorney in another law
fi rm, Don Corson. We've been working
with Don and his colleagues and staff for
over six years now, through three major
cases arising from that one April morning
collision.
Don met with us at our house, shortly
after I was discharged from the hospital.
Over the following months, he met with
my mobility trainer, met with the people
training me to use computer voice
software, conferred with staff at the
Oregon Commission for the Blind,
accompanied me on my training sessions
while I learned how to walk without
vision, and read books about blindness.
At the same time, he was investigating
the trucking collision and preparing and
fi ling the lawsuit against the negligent
truck driver and trucking company.
He wanted to see what I had to go
through in person, so he could better
understand what a major life change I
was experiencing.
The fi rst court case was against the trucking company and its driver. In the
course of that case, we learned that the
trucking company's insurance broker had
not purchased as much liability insurance
as the trucking company requested. We
eventually obtained the limited amount
of liability insurance that the broker had
obtained for the trucking company, and
the trucking company agreed to prosecute
an action against its broker, with proceeds
going to Della and me for my care and
rehabilitation.
Out of the blue, we were hit
with a federal lawsuit from my
own health insurance company.
Not only did the health insurer
want back all of the benefi ts it
had already paid, it wanted to
stop paying for future benefi ts
until we had used up all of the
settlement proceeds to pay for
medical care. And it wanted us
to keep on paying our full
health insurance premiums
even while it wanted to not pay
us any benefits. Sadly, we
learned that this is a common
position for health insurance
companies to take.
Don and others working
with him fought this second
lawsuit, even while we were gearing up
for the third. The health insurance case
was resolved after a settlement conference
with a U.S. District Court judge, with
both sides giving up something to reach
a compromise.
The third court case was the most
complicated and time-consuming. The
trucking company brought an action
against its insurance broker for the
broker's failure to obtain the amount of
liability insurance coverage that the
trucking company had requested.
Don and others prosecuted the
trucking company's case against the
insurance broker. I learned from Don
that a month before that trial, the court
granted a summary judgment against the
trucking company. The trucking
company appealed, eventually prevailing
in the Oregon Court of Appeals. The
Oregon Supreme Court denied review,
allowing the Court of Appeals ruling to
stand. Don tells me our case provides a
template for injured persons to bring
claims against insurance companies and
agents in the future.
The case against the broker eventually
settled through mediation. It's now been
more than six years since that fateful
April morning. We've been through three
court cases. As I write this article, we're
waiting for the insurance companies to
send the fi nal paperwork, and the case
will at last be fully concluded.
A new life
The legal work has given Della and
me fi nancial security. The settlements
were structured, so we receive a regular
monthly income. We were able to
purchase our own automobile repair shop
in Cottage Grove, D&D Automotive,
Inc. I'm back to work.
At our shop, I am able to do some of
the mechanic work like I used to do
before the collision. But now I have to
rely on a full time mechanic to do most
of the work in the shop, as I mainly do
the management part. I have also helped
a deaf young man learn how to be a
mechanic and have over the phone
mentored many other blind people that
want to go back to work.
There is no way in the world that
Della and I could have afforded to hire
an attorney by the hour to protect our
interests. It has taken years of effort and
untold hours of legal work to get us
through these three cases successfully. We
have fought and won against four law
fi rms and three insurance companies.
The average working person simply
would never have the fi nancial resources
to take on even one of those battles.
Those cases were expensive, diffi cult, and
time-consuming. Only because Don
Corson was willing to work on a
contingent fee basis were we able to
obtain the kind of legal representation
we needed.
Because of the ability to enforce our
rights in the courts, I've been able to
enjoy a much better life. After my
blindness, I continue to do some of the
things I enjoyed doing before -- such as
parasailing, horseback riding, and
building and driving race cars (with the
help of a passenger or two-way radios),
and I've participated in demolition
derbies. Someday, I hope to set a new
world land speed record for a blind
person, driving on the Salt Flats in excess
of 200 mph.
Without the ability to have an
attorney help us in the challenges I faced,
I like to think that I would have the same
spirit and attitude that I have today. But
having someone fi ght for you makes all
of the difference in how things work out,
and I'm thankful that we have a system
in Oregon that allows a typical citizen to
have a fair fi ght against even the major
insurance companies and corporations
and their teams of lawyers.
To visit Larry Woody's website, click here
(First appeared in the Summer 2008 issue of Trial Lawyer magazine, the quarterly journal of the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association)
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Corson & Johnson Law Firm does not offer any guarantee of case results.
Past success in litigation does not guarantee success in any new or future
civil action. Our web site describes some of the cases that Don Corson, Lara
Johnson, or The Corson & Johnson Law Firm has worked on in the past. Our
description of those cases is summary in nature. The results obtained in
each of the cases depended on the particular facts of each case. The results
of other cases will differ based on the different facts involved.
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