Shoulder Tear from Rear-End Collision

Case Study

Eli and his girlfriend were in Eli’s car when it was hit from behind. In a reflexive action Eli reached his right arm across in front of his girlfriend to keep her from hitting the dashboard. As a result, he sustained a tear to the rotator cuff in his right shoulder.

Eli was employed as a machine operator where he would place 75 pound gears on an overhead rack so they could go through a de-greasing machine and he would them reach up and remove the gears after they came through the machine clean. He was earning $80,000 per year at the time of the accident. As a result of his shoulder injury Eli was unable to continue doing this work that required overhead lifting and he was let go by his employer.

In an effort to maintain his lifestyle Eli invested his life savings in starting up a landscaping company which subsequently failed. The defendant’s insurance company took surveillance video of Eli working in his landscaping company carrying rolls of sod and pounding stakes into the ground. Since they felt this proved that he had not been injured to the point where he could not work at his high paying labor job, they offered $14,000 to settle. We took the matter to trial and a Hennepin County Jury awarded Eli $450,000, most of the award representing loss of income.