$25.1 Million for 3 Victims of Fatal Tractor-Trailer Crash

Attorneys John M. Dodig and Jason A. Daria forged the path to recovering $25.1 million — including a $19.1 million jury verdict — on behalf of three victims of a tractor-trailer accident involving multiple vehicles in a dangerous construction zone. The Legal Intelligencer recognized the verdict as the largest verdict in Pennsylvania in 2021.

Dodig and Daria represented the family of Robert Rosner, a 52-year-old deputy Pennsylvania attorney general who was killed on May 12, 2014, when he was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer while stuck in a backlog of traffic on a stretch of I-78 in Berks County, Pennsylvania, that was undergoing a bridge rehabilitation project. Rosner’s lawsuit was consolidated into a single trial along with a case brought by another law firm on behalf of a husband and wife who died in a separate vehicle when Rosner’s vehicle was pushed into theirs.

At the five-day trial before a jury in Philadelphia, Dodig and Daria established on behalf of all the plaintiffs that the contractor on the project, Bill Anskis, Inc., acted negligently by failing to have a traffic control supervisor monitor the traffic backup, place additional signs in advance of the backup, and request that the Pennsylvania State Police station a patrol car with its lights activated in advance of the backup to alert motorists. On cross-examination, Dodig got Bill Anskis’ foreman to admit that the contractor did not do everything within its control to protect motorists.

The $19.1 million verdict included a $7 million verdict for Rosner’s family and $12.1 million for the two other victims.

Prior to the trial, Dodig and Daria led in securing on behalf of all the plaintiffs $6 million in settlements from other defendants in the case.