City ordered to pay $285,000 in garbage truck collision

A jury on Thursday ordered the city of Spokane to pay a man $285,000 after he was struck by a garbage truck five years ago.

The amount disappointed Karl Woolery, 45, who had asked for a total of $869,000 for lost wages, pain and suffering and future losses from the injured shoulder he suffered when he was rear-ended in the crash on July 24, 2006. The city’s attorney asked the jury for a figure substantially less than that – about $860,000 less.

“It’s frustrating to have to fight the city for five years. They ran me over with a garbage truck,” Woolery said. “They subpoenaed my bank records, my kid’s bank records and they subpoenaed all my vacation photos. They did everything they could to not do anything.”

Assistant City Attorney Bruce Cox conceded in his closing arguments this week that the city was at fault for the collision. He said it was fair for the city to pay $7,700 worth of medical bills that came immediately after the crash but argued that Woolery’s permanent shoulder injury was not caused by the garbage truck’s impact.

As a result, Cox asked the jury to limit any award for Woolery to range between $500 and $2,000 for everything from future lost wages to non-economic future damages.

Cox showed photos of Woolery with a small backpack during a vacation to Hawaii and another holding his son in a wrestling move. Both would have been nearly impossible with the shoulder injury described by Woolery, Cox said.

But Woolery’s attorney, Scott Blair of Seattle, countered that the city could have easily settled the case out of court instead of paying $1,300 an hour to hire a medical expert to try to counter the medical evidence.

“They’ve dissected this man’s life like a frog,” Blair said in his closing statement. “You are the conscience of the community. Putting one of your good citizens through that is wrong.”

Woolery said Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Connor had barred the jury from learning that he is now required to pay back $109,000 from the state Department of Labor and Industries to support him after the crash.

The case had also been set for trial seven times before it finally went before a jury. During that time, the city initially offered to settle the case for $50,000 and later upped that amount to about $99,000. Now the city will have to pay close to three times that amount after taking it to trial.

Woolery said the driver of the city’s garbage truck didn’t apologize or even check to see if he was hurt on the day of the crash. It was the first insult in what Woolery described as very a frustrating legal battle.

“It’s just more proof,” Woolery said, “that you can’t fight City Hall.”