$2.9 Million Dollar Verdict

Accident Victim Awarded Millions
Reprinted From: Morning Advocate, March 1986
Acadiana Bureau

VILLE PLATTE - A judge here Friday signed a $2.95 million award for a man who suffered severe brain damage in a March 1986 accident in northern Evangeline parish.

The victim, David Ardoin, and his father, R. L. Ardoin, sued the state Department of Transportation and Development and Jeffrey Whiddon, driver of the car in which the victim was riding.

State District Judge L. O. Fusilier ruled that Whiddon and the DOTD were equally liable in the case. The judge also ruled that the damage award would be a third more, but the victim had not properly exercised his judgment to determine that the driver was impaired.

Ardoin's attorney's, Jerry McKernan and Thomas Walker of Baton Rouge, said evidence showed that Whiddon had been drinking before the accident but there was no proof he was intoxicated.

The accident occurred on La. 106, 2.1 miles west of Bayou Chicot. Fusilier determined that the state was at fault for not correcting a pair of curves, located closely together in the roadway, known as "broker-back curves." And the state should have erected signs to warn the public of the dangerous curves, Fusilier determined.

Walker said his client suffered extensive permanent brain damage, although he's not bed-ridden.

The judge concluded that David Ardoin should receive the maximum of $500,000 in general damages, $2 million for future medical expenses, $174,203 for loss of earnings and $284,975 for past medical expenses.