Garrett v. USAA Insurance - $2,000,752.27

On September 25, 2008, Jon Garrett, a 16-year old Satellite High School student, was on his way to a swim meet in Melbourne. He was stopped at the intersection of Babcock Street and Bulldog Avenue in Melbourne, Florida, in a line of traffic, when he was violently rear-ended by a 2001 Ford pick-up truck. As a result of the impact, the 1991 Toyota Celica that Jon was operating was rendered a total loss. As a result of the crash, he was seriously and permanently injured, suffering a disc herniation in his neck and his back.

Prior to the time of the crash, Jon was a healthy and very active high school student. His primary interest was competitive swimming with aspirations of receiving a Division 1 university swimming scholarship. He was a varsity swimmer at Satellite High School and was also highly ranked both in the State of Florida and nationally.

The serious spinal injuries caused significant pain and limited Jon’s ability to move his neck and perform the motions required for swim strokes and ultimately ended his pursuit to swim competitively and pursue a Division 1 swimming scholarship.

Unfortunately, the driver of the pick-up only maintained $100,000.00 in bodily injury liability coverage. It became clear very early that Jon’s injuries were very serious and the amount of liability insurance would not be sufficient to cover the full extent of his injuries.