Jury verdict: MSD was negligent in young woman's death, but no compensation for family

Ryan Oehrli, Asheville Citizen Times
·3 min read
A jury returned their verdict Sept. 2 in a two-week-long wrongful death trial in Buncombe County in the death of 20-year-old Christina Nowak.
A jury returned their verdict Sept. 2 in a two-week-long wrongful death trial in Buncombe County in the death of 20-year-old Christina Nowak.

ASHEVILLE — When the jury returned their verdict in a wrongful death suit, neither side was thrilled.

After two weeks in court, a jury concluded Sept. 2 that Buncombe County Metropolitan Sewerage District was negligent in setting up a work zone and truck that 20-year-old Christina Michaela Nowak crashed into in October 2016. But the decision had no teeth, since the court similarly concluded that Nowak also contributed to her own injury.

As a result of the second conclusion, the Nowak family will receive no financial compensation from MSD.

The jury's unanimous verdict came after about two hours of deliberation Sept. 2 after the trial that started Aug. 22.

Michaela Nowak's mother, Tina Franklin, of Mills River, filed a complaint in 2017, originally naming two men who were on the flushing truck crew that day, clearing debris from a manhole on the highway. Their names were removed from the complaint before trial, making MSD the sole defendant.

Previous reporting:

Michaela Nowak, 20, died after she ran into the back of a MSD flushing truck in 2016 on Smokey Park Highway.
Michaela Nowak, 20, died after she ran into the back of a MSD flushing truck in 2016 on Smokey Park Highway.

Throughout the trial, plaintiff's attorneys argued that MSD did not set up proper work zone safety precautions on the multi-lane Smokey Park Highway, pulling heavily from the Federal Highway Administration's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices and grilling MSD workers during cross-examination.

The defense claimed that the "guidelines" — referred to simply as standards by the plaintiff attorneys — were not so black and white, however, and said that Michaela Nowak driving 65 mph on the 40-mph road could not be ignored.

"Her speed matters," defense attorney Andy Santaniello told the jury during his closing argument.

Plaintiff's attorney Katie Clary pushed back on that idea during her own closing argument and said that if MSD had simply set up a proper taper with cones in the lane their flushing truck was parked in, the crash could have been avoided entirely.

"If the lane was closed the way it was supposed to be, we wouldn't be here right now ... She'd be alive," Clary said.

Jurors were given three questions: Was MSD negligent? Did Michaela Nowak contribute to her own injury in some way? If the answer to the first question was yes and the second no, they could have answered how much money MSD should pay to the family.

Before the jury deliberated, plaintiff's attorneys requested language about "gross negligence" by MSD regarding safety in the jury instructions, which could have outweighed concerns about Nowak's own speeding. Judge Daniel Kuehnert denied that request.

"The reason this matters has less to do with money and more to do with making communities and states safer," Clary, reached by phone after the verdict, said.

So long as the company can point to even a "minor traffic infraction," there is no impetus for change, she said.

"They can sue them all they want, but they're never going to recover," she said.

North Carolina is one of only a few states that has an "all or nothing" rule when it comes to contributory negligence, meaning that if the plaintiff is found to be at fault at all, no compensation is on the table.

"It's not perfect, but we get to have both sides," Kuehnert said of the court system at the end of the trial, noting the family's disappointment.

Nowak's mother testified earlier in the trial that she sued MSD in hopes that the company would change and that another mother would not suffer as she had.

"I'm not going to make a comment one way or the other about the verdict," Santaniello said after the verdict.

Franklin is planning to appeal, Clary told the Citizen Times. That appeal process will begin in the next 30 days.

She could not be reached for comment.

Ryan Oehrli is the breaking news and social justice reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Send tips to coehrli@citizentimes.com. 

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Jury: MSD was negligent in young woman's death, but no compensation