Greg Abbott, who sued big-time over the accident that left him paralyzed and is now a champion of tort reform? Color me shocked.
When a 75-foot oak tree snapped and fell, crippling a jogger named Greg Abbott in July 1984, he did what most Texans would do: He sued the owner of the tree. A few months later, Abbott's attorney also sued the tree-trimming company that had worked on the giant oak, and within a year, the homeowner, the tree company, their insurance companies and Abbott had agreed to an out-of-court settlement that would pay Abbott's current and future medical bills and compensate him for mental anguish and for some of the income he lost because of the accident.
Abbott hired Don Riddle, a well-regarded trial lawyer, to sue the homeowner and later the arborist on Abbott's behalf. Abbott says the tree was known to be rotting and dangerous and that the tree company was brought in because it knew about the problem—not because it was a rich target. The lawyers on the other side don't remember admitting the tree was rotten, but say there was a battle of experts on that issue. One of them, Dick Ellis, says "you don't want to go to court with the defendants shooting at each other." And the victim was extremely sympathetic: Abbott didn't do anything wrong, was a young, married uninsured attorney about to start work in a big firm and begin a lucrative career. The risk of going to court was too great, Ellis said. They worked out a deal.
The settlement wasn't filed in public records at the court and Abbott wouldn't reveal the details. Lawyers familiar with the case recalled it was a "structured annuity" meant to pay installments over several years. It did not include punitive damages, but probably did include non-economic damages—some compensation just for going through a terrible accident, the rehab that followed and the lifelong confinement to a wheelchair. Another attorney said Abbott and Riddle didn't "abuse the system" to try to get a bigger settlement, but they also didn't leave anything out.http://texasweekly.com/newsletter/tw20020218.html