School bus co. settles on eve of $36.5M verdict.

Byline: Pat Murphy

Jury deliberations had begun when the settlement offer came in.

For the defendant school transportation company, the time was right. The eight-week trial had raised serious questions about the cause of the school bus crash, and rulings from the bench had alerted jurors to discovery violations and potential spoliation of video evidence.

First Student and the other defendant in the case reached a confidential settlement with three plaintiffs who sustained catastrophic injuries when the BMW they were passengers in collided head-on with one of the company's buses.

The settlement was finalized just before a Plymouth Superior Court jury on Aug. 28 returned a verdict finding both the driver of the BMW and the bus company negligent in the March 30, 2012, crash. The jury assessed the damages suffered by the plaintiffs and their families at $36.5 million.

The judge, Mark A. Hallal, permitted the jury to return the verdict even though the parties had settled, raising the inference that the amounts awarded by the jurors helped set the amounts to be paid to the individual plaintiffs under the terms of the deal.

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"The defendant made many mistakes, and we capitalized on all of them."

Robert S. Sinsheimer, Boston

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Brian P. Voke, the lead trial attorney for First Student, informed the media about the existence of the confidential settlement after the verdict was returned. The Boston defense attorney declined a request for an interview. Plaintiffs' counsel, meanwhile, declined to discuss the terms of the settlement.

The jury awarded the lion's share of the damages to plaintiff Eva Lipton, who suffered a permanent brain injury in the accident. Her damages were assessed at $21 million, with $2 million awarded to each of her parents for loss of consortium.

"[First Student] made many mistakes, and we capitalized on all of them," said Boston attorney Robert S. Sinsheimer, who represented the Liptons with co-counsel Lisa A. Parlagreco.

Catastrophic injuries

Lipton and two other teens, Aliza Nantais and Brendan McGilley, were passengers in a car driven by defendant Monica Knight. Her BMW and a bus operated by Catherine Dennis collided head on at a curved section of road in Kingston, near Lake Regional High School.

Claiming they suffered catastrophic injuries in the wreck, Lipton, Nantais and McGilley sued Knight, Dennis and First Student for negligence.

"[Lipton] sustained unimaginably horrific injuries," Parlagreco said. "This...