{"id":34842,"date":"2023-12-19T10:02:35","date_gmt":"2023-12-19T15:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=34842"},"modified":"2023-12-19T10:02:35","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T15:02:35","slug":"federal-judge-upholds-26-5-million-award-to-family-in-usps-crash-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2023\/12\/19\/federal-judge-upholds-26-5-million-award-to-family-in-usps-crash-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Judge Upholds $26.5 Million Award to Family in USPS Crash Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

DALLAS<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0Dec. 18, 2023<\/span><\/span>\u00a0\/PRNewswire\/ — Justice was served for\u00a0Michael and Dung Le<\/span>, a\u00a0Texas<\/span>\u00a0couple whose lives were forever altered by a preventable accident involving a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) vehicle. In a resounding victory for the Le family, U.S. District Judge\u00a0Reed O’Connor<\/span>\u00a0on\u00a0December 15<\/span>\u00a0rejected the government’s attempt to reduce the\u00a0$26.5 million<\/span>\u00a0judgment<\/a>\u00a0granted in their lawsuit stemming from the\u00a0May 2018<\/span>\u00a0collision.<\/p>\n

Judge O’Connor’s ruling\u00a0is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Mr. and Mrs. Le suffered catastrophic damages due to the negligence of a U.S. postal worker,” said\u00a0C.\u00a0Kyle Pugh<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Dallas’<\/span>\u00a0C.\u00a0Kyle Pugh P.C<\/span>.<\/a>\u00a0and lead counsel to Mr. and Mrs. Le. “The attorneys for the\u00a0United States\u00a0argued to Judge\u00a0Reed O’Connor<\/span>\u00a0that the damages he awarded were excessive. Judge O’Connor issued a strong and well-reasoned opinion rejecting the\u00a0United States’\u00a0attempt to minimize the Le family’s damages.<\/p>\n

The collision left Mr. Le a quadriplegic with a host of other debilitating medical issues. The lawsuit\u00a0alleged\u00a0that the collision was caused by the negligent driving of a USPS employee who backed a mail truck into Mr. Le’s vehicle while driving against the flow of traffic.<\/p>\n

Following a four-day bench trial in\u00a0April 2023<\/span>, Judge O’Connor found the government liable for the accident and awarded the Le family\u00a0$26.5 million<\/span>\u00a0in damages.<\/p>\n

The government contested the award, claiming it was excessive. However, Judge O’Connor firmly rejected their arguments, citing the “unprecedented severity” of Mr. Le’s injuries and their profound impact on the entire family.<\/p>\n

“In sum, the court concludes that the multitude of severe conditions undergirding Mr. Le’s claim present exacerbating factual peculiarities which weigh heavily on his forecasted pain and anguish but are ‘not reflected within the controlling caselaw,'”\u00a0Judge O’Connor wrote.<\/p>\n

Judge O’Connor continued: “Mrs. Le has had to endure and continues to endure mental and emotional pain as a result of her husband’s suffering. She has become the sole income-earner and, along with her family members, a primary caretaker of her husband. Mrs. Le and the rest of the family experience intense financial strain due to the loss of Mr. Le’s financial support.”<\/p>\n

“The Le family is hopeful that this ruling will end the government’s efforts to avoid responsibility in this tragic and preventable accident,” Pugh said.<\/p>\n

Dallas<\/span>\u00a0attorneys\u00a0Kellie McKee<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0John Schulman<\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0Margaret Schulman<\/span><\/a>\u00a0served as co-counsel to Mr. Pugh.<\/p>\n

SOURCE C.\u00a0Kyle Pugh P.C<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DALLAS,\u00a0Dec. 18, 2023\u00a0\/PRNewswire\/ — Justice was served for\u00a0Michael and Dung Le, a\u00a0Texas\u00a0couple whose lives were forever altered by a preventable accident involving a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) vehicle. In a resounding victory for the Le family, U.S. District Judge\u00a0Reed O’Connor\u00a0on\u00a0December 15\u00a0rejected the government’s attempt to reduce the\u00a0$26.5 million\u00a0judgment\u00a0granted in their lawsuit stemming from the\u00a0May 2018\u00a0collision. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34844,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34842\/revisions\/34844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}