By Michael Loney

June 30 - (The Insurer) - The Texas Supreme Court has ruled in favor of trucking company Werner Enterprises in reversing and dismissing the landmark $90 million truck accident verdict from 2018.

The case, originally brought by the Blake family against Werner, concerns a 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.

The opinion will be of interest to commercial insurance insurers, who have long been battling rocketing claims costs resulting from a series of nuclear verdicts in cases involving trucking companies.

WTW highlighted in an article last year that the lower court’s ruling had suggested that truckers who drive lawfully could be liable for a crash involving a motorist on the other side of the highway who loses control of their vehicle from their own negligence.

“Members of the trucking and insurance industries are anxiously awaiting the results of this appeal to the Texas Supreme Court because this verdict defies common sense,” the article said.

The plaintiffs had alleged Werner and its driver were at fault, despite Werner’s driver traveling below the posted speed limit, remaining in his lane of traffic for the entirety of the incident and braking before impact.

Werner asserted from the beginning that the accident was non-preventable and that its driver acted appropriately.

After more than seven years of appeals, the Texas Supreme Court on June 27 reversed the decision and fully dismissed the lawsuit.

On appeal from the Court of Appeals for the Fourteenth District of Texas, Chief Justice Blacklock delivered the opinion of the court, joined by four other justices while three justices dissented in part.

The opinion highlighted that the driver of a pickup truck, Trey Salinas, traveling too fast on an icy, divided interstate highway suddenly lost control, hurtled across a 42-foot-wide median, and collided with the defendant’s 18-wheeler before the defendant had time to react.

The collision killed one of the Blake children and severely injuring the three other Blake family members

The court noted that the plaintiffs proved at trial that, if not for the 18-wheeler’s speed, which was below the speed limit but still unsafe for the icy conditions, the accident likely would not have occurred or the injuries would have been less severe.

“We must conclude, however, that this proof is insufficient to establish that the defendant’s negligence was a substantial factor in bringing about the plaintiffs’ injuries,” the opinion said.

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."

Werner president and chief legal officer Nathan Meisgeier thanked the court for the ruling.

“A different outcome would have had far-reaching implications beyond the transportation industry,” he said.