Driver struck in Christmas Eve collision wins $93,750 jury verdict

A St. Charles County jury has awarded nearly $100,000 to a 56-year-old St. Charles man who was injured in a two-car collision on Christmas Eve 2016.

Kenneth E. Hunn Jr. sued James A. Mainieri, 25, of O’Fallon, in October 2017. He initially demanded Mainieri’s $50,000 policy limit with Allstate Insurance to settle the claim but was offered only $3,800, plaintiff’s attorney Shaun Lieser said.

Allstate offered the $50,000 policy limit several weeks before trial, but Hunn made a final pretrial demand of $180,000, which led to the transfer of outside counsel 10 days before trial. Hunn subsequently asked the jury for $431,000 for his medical costs, plus pain and suffering, said St. Louis defense attorney Ellen Brooke, who represented Mainieri at trial.

Mainieri told St. Charles police that he “did not remember” whether he had a solid green light or a green arrow before turning left from northbound Cave Springs Road onto an Interstate 70 on-ramp.

Hunn, who was operating a 2003 Toyota Camry, was traveling in the opposite direction on Cave Springs when he was struck by the other driver’s 2014 Ford Focus. He told police his light was green.

Lieser said his client was advised that his injuries from the collision would require shoulder surgery at a cost of $130,000, an assertion disputed by the defense’s medical expert, who deemed Hunn’s condition degenerative and not caused by the crash.

The St. Charles County jury found in favor of Hunn after a two-day trial in late April.

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