03/10/2026
It’s been a while since our last social media post! Between depositions, court hearings, and working cases for our clients, social media sometimes takes a back seat. I guess we are better at lawyering than being influencers! Please check out a recent settlement of ours, and stay tuned for more in the coming weeks.
Clawson Fargnoli Utsey recently settled a complex motor vehicle collision case for more than $3,125,000. Our client was driving to work early one morning before sunrise. It was a particularly windy day, resulting in leaves and branches from trees adjacent to the rural highway to be blown onto the roadway. At the same time, a commercial truck driver working for a national consumer goods manufacturer, was traveling in the opposite direction on this two-lane highway. The commercial truck came upon a tree that had fallen across the roadway and collided with the tree, forcing the tree into our client's oncoming vehicle, resulting in his death.
We convinced the well-known company to engage in a pre-suit exchange of information. Our resulting investigation established that their employee driver had been exceeding the speed limit in the moments prior to the collision. Video from inside the truck showed the driver using his cell phone, talking to a trainee in the passenger seat, and with earbuds in his ears - apparently listening to music. The video also showed trees swaying in the wind and vegetation blowing across the roadway. It even showed the truck running over a tree branch less than a minute prior to encountering the downed tree. It was clear that the driver was distracted, not paying attention to the risks posed by the prevailing weather conditions, and traveling at an excessive speed. As a result, he was slow to react when he encountered the downed tree and hit it with such force that it flew across the roadway into our client's vehicle. We mediated the claim against the well-known company pre-suit and it settled for $2,850,000.
We then turned our attention to the owner of the land from which the tree had fallen and filed suit. This aspect of the case had numerous challenges. The landowner had previously employed an arborist and a forester to conduct logging operations on the property. The insurer for the landowner denied coverage because the landowner's homeowner's policy excluded coverage for commercial operations. Neither the arborist nor the forester had insurance. Despite our best efforts to frame the area as transitioning from rural to suburban by point to vehicle traffic counts, homes, schools, gas stations, businesses, and churches in the area, South Carolina law regarding the duties of rural landowners with respect to trees was a significant headwind for us. However, we were able to obtain contributions of personal money from each of these three parties, as well as the homeowner's insurer, and our client's limited underinsured motorist coverage totaling $277,000, bringing the full recovery to $3,127,000. While no amount of money can fully or fairly compensate the surviving spouse and children of our client for his untimely death, we are nevertheless proud of our efforts to turn over every stone in order to maximize their recovery in this case.
Think of Clawson Fargnoli Utsey, LLC for life altering personal injury and death cases across South Carolina, including commercial trucking and downed tree cases. (Prior results do not guaranty similar future outcomes. Sam Clawson, Jr. is the attorney responsible for his post and his office is located in the Presqu'ile House, 2 Amherst Street, Charleston SC 29403).
