Trial Team Secures Defense Verdict in Trucking/Transportation Case in Suffolk County, N.Y.

New York, N.Y. (June 11, 2025) - The trial team of Christian McGannon, Andrew Harms, Nicholas Hurzeler and Michelle Gorman secured a defense verdict before a Suffolk County jury on Friday, May 30, 2025, in a trucking casualty action brought by a supermarket store manager.

The plaintiff sued for personal injuries allegedly sustained at a supermarket in Levittown, New York when a pallet of cereal boxes allegedly fell over while he was unloading our client’s non-perishables trailer. Our client loaded the trailer at its Bethlehem, Pennsylvania warehouse earlier that day. The pallet of cereal boxes was allegedly mis-leveled upon arrival at the Levittown store and the plaintiff took photographs of the condition before choosing to move the mis-leveled pallet with a pallet jack. The pallet allegedly fell over while being hoisted onto the pallet jack. The plaintiff was not struck by the pallet; instead, he jumped back when it fell and injured his knee, requiring knee replacement surgery.

At trial, the plaintiff admitted that he was not struck by the falling pallet, that he observed and took pictures of the mis-leveled pallet to document the hazardous condition, and likewise as store manager he had received extensive training about safe unloading procedures with pallet jacks. Our client’s witness demonstrated that once the trailer left their warehouse they no longer exercised control of the trailers’ contents, that the trailer had made one delivery before Levittown where numerous items had been removed, that the truck was driven by a separate commercial carrier, and that there was no evidence that the pallets had been improperly stacked at the warehouse. Our trucking expert established that once the trailer left our client’s warehouse it was under the complete control of the commercial carrier and supermarkets that received the goods. The trucking expert also testified that given the plaintiff’s level of training as a supermarket manager, he should have immediately shut the doors and sent the load back to the warehouse when he saw the mis-leveled pallets.

The jury deliberated for two hours before rendering a defense verdict. Trial counsel Christian McGannon masterfully handled all aspects of trial, including an effective cross-examination of the plaintiff, direct examinations of our client’s fact and expert witnesses, and a convincing closing argument.

One key to the defense was the trailer’s trip manifest showing the stop prior to the supermarket in question. While not dispositive, the trip manifest was instrumental at trial to convince the jury that our client did not have exclusive control over the load after it left our warehouse. The jury was asked by the plaintiff to find “by a preponderance of the evidence” that our client had caused or created the hazardous condition. The manifest, bolstered by our client’s testimony, effectively rebutted the plaintiff’s case as the jury found the plaintiff could not meet his burden to prove our client caused the hazardous condition.

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