By Eric Berman
10/6/2009
A jury has awarded $10.2 million to the widow of a paving-company worker killed during construction work on I-465.
Jay Soots, 30, was part of a crew moving traffic-control signs when he fell off the back of a moving flatbed trailer in June 2006.
Attorneys argued subcontractor Schutt-Lookabill could have prevented the accident by requiring workers to ride in the attached truck, or by making them wear hard hats.
Soots' widow Rose also sued Shelly & Sands, the general contractor on the project.
Attorney John P. Daly had asked a Marion Superior Court jury for a verdict of at least $7 million. He describes Rose Soots as "overwhelmed" by the judgment.
A little more than a million dollars of the verdict is to reimburse Soots for Jay Soots' medical and burial expenses, and for his lost future earnings. At issue, along with whether the companies were liable at all, was what dollar figure to attach to the personal loss to Rose Soots and the couple's two daughters.
Defense attorney Danford Due says the companies will appeal, and declined further comment while that appeal is pending.
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