A City of St. Louis jury returned a $1,168,829 verdict in favor of Plaintiff Tara Straussner, a city resident who was struck in a severe head-on collision with a city-owned truck driven by a city employee on a residential street when he crossed into her lane and struck her stopped car.
Plaintiff, represented by lead attorney, Lisa Tsacoumangos, and Abbey Walquist of Brown & Crouppen, P.C., pursued claims against the City of St. Louis for vicarious liability and against the employee. The City of St. Louis initially denied its driver was acting in the course and scope of his employment, but the Court held the City did not present substantial evidence to overcome the presumption that he was in the course and scope at the time of the collision.
The 41-year-old sustained a mild traumatic brain injury, a torn meniscus, three herniated lumbar discs, and lacerations requiring sutures. Plaintiff’s neurosurgeon testified that her cognitive impairments were consistent with permanent anterograde amnesia. The Plaintiff’s treating physician also testified that her meniscus tear required future surgery, and her lumbar herniations would require surgery if conservative methods failed. The City’s motions to exclude expert testimony about post-concussive syndrome, increased likelihood of future dementia, and the permanence of the brain injury as such evidence were denied as they went to the weight not admissibility.
The plaintiff testified to the jury about her new life now governed by memory aids, rigid routines, and constant reminders. In a powerful closing, Lisa Tsacoumangos argued that Tara’s demeanor on the witness stand was a clear reflection of her brain trauma—“a severing of the brain’s editing center,” she argued, which explained Tara’s flat affect and obsessive coping strategies. The City presented no evidence.
After roughly three hours of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict awarding $1,162,229 in personal injury damages and $6,600 for property damage. There were no pre-suit offers made by the City.
