Texas Supreme Court reverses $90M judgment against Werner Enterprises

Werner (WERN) Enterprises announced the Texas Supreme Court has ruled in Werner’s favor in reversing and dismissing the landmark $90M truck accident verdict from 2018. The case centered on a tragic 2014 accident in Texas, where a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction on a divided interstate highway lost control, crossed a median and struck a Werner tractor-trailer. Plaintiffs alleged Werner and its driver were at fault, despite the fact that Werner’s driver was traveling well below the posted speed limit, remained in his lane of traffic for the entirety of the incident and was braking before impact, but without sufficient time to avoid collision. The company has asserted from the beginning that the accident was non-preventable and that its driver acted appropriately. Werner appealed the original 2018 verdict and, after more than seven years of appeals, the Texas Supreme Court has now reversed the decision and fully dismissed the lawsuit. The Texas Supreme Court ruled that Werner and its driver were “a mere happenstance of place and time,” and that “the sole proximate cause of this accident and these injuries (the sole substantial factor to which the law permits assignment of liability) was the sudden, unexpected hurtling of the victims’ vehicle into oncoming highway traffic, for which Werner and its driver bore no responsibility.”