Trial Magazine

Diego Rodrigues Matos, 26, needed a truck replacement part to use for his ­landscaping business. He went to a lot owned by Rechtien International Trucks and showed a Rechtien employee a picture of the part he needed. The employee directed Matos to drive around the lot in search of a truck similar to his so that he could identify the exact part that would need to be ordered. Matos later found a truck, opened its unlocked door, and raised the truck’s bed. While he lay over the vehicle’s chassis, the truck bed descended, pinning him down and crushing his neck. Matos, a father of one minor child, died from his injuries.

Matos’s fiancée, on behalf of his estate and the couple’s child, sued Rechtien, alleging liability for, among other things, failing to warn that the truck bed posed a dangerous condition, lock the doors of the trucks located on its property, and accompany Matos around the property in search of the truck replacement part.

Suit did not claim lost income.

The jury awarded $15.28 million, finding Matos 30 percent responsible.

The parties settled for an undisclosed amount after the verdict.

Citation: Stoelzle v. Rechtien Int’l Trucks, No. CACE-14-022085 (Fla. Cir. Ct. Broward Cnty. Nov. 30, 2017).

Plaintiff counsel: Marc Wites, Lighthouse Point, Fla.; and Harry Shevin, Boca Raton, Fla.