Phila. Attorney Secures $11 Mil. Settlement in Lackawanna County

By Amaris Elliott-Engel

February, 2008

An $11 million settlement has been reached in a Lackawanna Common Pleas Court personal injury lawsuit brought over a woman's death in a head-on collision.

Dean O'Halloran of Dunmore was driving a Penske truck eastbound on Route 590 in Salem Township, Wayne County, around 9 a.m. on April 15, 2005, when his truck crossed over the centerline and collided head-on with a Dodge Neon operated westbound by Diane Glynn, the lawsuit complaint in Glynn v. O'Halloran alleged. Glynn was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a Pennsylvania State Police accident report and the lawsuit complaint.

O'Halloran, who is now 25, was driving a company truck and was employed with Erie Materials/Scranton Inc., which had lease-to-own Penske trucks from Penske Truck Leasing Co., according to court papers.

Mark W. Tanner and Daniel J. Mann of Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner & Weinstock represented the plaintiffs: Kerry Glynn of Greentown, the eldest daughter of Glynn and executor of Glynn's estate, as well as Diane Glynn's 14-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son.

Richard G. Fine of Fine Wyatt & Carey in Scranton, a defense attorney in the case, confirmed the settlement but said that, out of respect for his client's confidentiality, he did not want to comment on his client's reasons for settlement or the defense theory of the case.

"I think the settlement was the result of a couple months of negotiations," Fine said.

Jeffrey E. Havran of Fine Wyatt also represented the defendants.

In the defense answer to the lawsuit complaint, the defendants argued they acted within due care at all times and denied "any inference of negligence, carelessness or recklessness."

The settlement was important to the Glynn family because "they like anybody else want justice," Tanner said.

Mann and Tanner said that the $11 million settlement maxed out the defendants' policy limit with Acadia Insurance Co./Fireman's Insurance Co. of Washington.

The plaintiffs' attorneys called their case a strong one because a hospital blood alcohol test showed O'Halloran had a 0.149 blood alcohol level two hours after the accident and because O'Halloran had been in another accident earlier that morning. The test was included in the plaintiffs' motion to file an amended complaint.

According to a Pennsylvania State Police report - included in the plaintiffs' motion to file an amended complaint - about an accident around 6:15 a.m. on April 15, 2005, O'Halloran was driving north on Interstate 81 in Lackawanna County in a 1987 Chevrolet Blazer when he swerved into another northbound vehicle. The report said O'Halloran was observed to "stop on the other side of the road, got out, looked, then drove away."

The police report also said that it was established later that O'Halloran was involved in both the hit-and-run accident and the fatal accident and that the investigation would remain open "pending a determination of county of prosecution."

The plaintiffs' attorneys also said the case was a strong one because it involved potential compensatory damages for Diane Glynn's two youngest children, who were placed in foster care after her death before her 14-year-old daughter was adopted by Kerry Glynn and her 7-year-old son was adopted by his aunt.

Tanner said that he indicated to the defense he would try the case unless they settled for $11 million. The settlement was reached last month.

The plaintiffs' attorneys said that with the case settled they will send letters to law enforcement authorities, including the Pennsylvania State Police's internal affairs, raising the question of whether O'Halloran should face criminal charges.

"There's never been a criminal prosecution. And that's what we're working on next," Tanner said.

Officials from the Wayne County District Attorney's Office said last Wednesday that they did not have any record of any criminal charges filed against O'Halloran.

According to the Pennsylvania State Police accident report related to the fatal accident, Gail Wintermute, a witness to the accident, said that O'Halloran's vehicle crossed the centerline about five times; Wintermute was afraid O'Halloran would run into him, pulled off the road and observed O'Halloran's vehicle cross from the eastbound lane into the westbound lane and strike Diane Glynn's vehicle. The accident report was included in the plaintiffs' motion to file an amended complaint.

During O'Halloran's June 7, 2006, deposition, Havran instructed O'Halloran to assert his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination when Tanner asked O'Halloran if he had consumed any alcoholic beverages the night before the accident.

During the deposition, O'Halloran said that he did not know what happened during the accident. O'Halloran had a left knee laceration and possibly hit his head because of the accident, according to his deposition.

At the time of the deposition, O'Halloran reported that he was currently on workers' compensation and that he had not returned to his prior employer because he found it emotionally stressful to be there. O'Halloran said he reported for work at 6:30 a.m. the day of the accident, according to his deposition.

During the March 14, 2007, deposition with the first state police trooper responding to the fatal accident, Trooper Patrick Foy said that O'Halloran "was coherent, didn't have an odor of an alcoholic beverage about him, didn't appear to be injured in a major way." Foy also said that he believed O'Halloran had fallen asleep behind the wheel and that the weaving observed by the accident witness could indicate sleep deprivation.

During the March 14, 2007, deposition of O'Halloran's stepfather, Michael McTavish, a corporal in the Pennsylvania State Police, McTavish said that he attended Foy's interview with O'Halloran to give his stepson moral support. McTavish said in the deposition that O'Halloran indicated in the interview that he believed he had nodded off and drifted off the shoulder of the road.

McTavish also said during the deposition that he did not know of the other, earlier accident but that Foy did ask O'Halloran if anything else had occurred earlier that morning.