EDWARDSVILLE — Prairie Farms would need to pay $241 million to the family of a Missouri courier who allegedly died from carbon dioxide exposure while delivering crates of strawberries packed in dry ice, under a Madison County jury verdict.
The jury rendered the verdict in Madison County Circuit Court on Feb. 27 in the case brought against Prairie Farms Dairy Inc. and a related corporate defendant by Paula Johnson, widow of Eric Johnson, the deceased delivery driver.
Attorneys from the Chicago-based firm of Salvi Schostok & Pritchard filed the lawsuit on the Johnson family's behalf in 2017, about a year after Eric Johnson died after being found unresponsive in a parking lot in Missouri.
According to court documents, Prairie Farms contracted with Johnson, then 64 years old, of Missouri, through courier company CJS Express on Aug. 5, 2016, to "pick up several crates of strawberries and deliver them to a location in Arkansas."
According to the company, Prairie Farms affiliate PFD Supply directed Johnson to pick up the strawberries packed in dry ice at its facility in St. Charles, Missouri, in suburban St. Louis.
According to court documents, Johnson loaded the crates into his car, a 2016 Honda Fit, and departed on his journey.
However, after departing on his journey from the PFD facility, Johnson was reportedly found 90 minutes later unresponsive in his vehicle, with the engine still running, in a parking lot, still in St. Charles, Missouri.
According to court documents, responding emergency medical services transported him to a nearby hosptal, where he died three days later.
According to court documents, responding emergency services officers indicated the interior of the car gave off a "strong, sharp smell," similar large amounts of carbon dioxide.
Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide.
According to court documents, when he left the PFD facility, a rear window of Johnson's vehicle was down, as is required for transporting goods including dry ice. However, when he was later found in the parking lot, all of the windows to his car were up.
The Johnson family filed suit, asserting Prairie Farms and its subsidiary, PFD, should be made to pay for allegedly not properly instructing Johnson on how to safely transport dry ice before loading up his vehicle and allowing him to depart with the strawberries.
In response, Prairie Farms and PFD had sought to dismiss the lawsuit at various times in the past nine years. They unsuccessfully argued that the Johnson family should not be allowed to sue them in Madison County's famously plaintiff friendly courts under Illinois' plaintiff friendly state law, because the incident wholly occurred in Missouri and the Johnsons are also from Missouri.
They also argued that Johnson's suit should be disallowed because he presented himself as a sophisticated, professional courier who knew how to safely transport dry ice and didn't need any further instructions, including instruction on keeping a window open to properly ventilate the interior of his vehicle while the packages containing dry ice were in his vehicle.
According to court documents, no one involved in the case denied that one window left open would have provided enough ventilation to potentially avoid harm from carbon dioxide exposure from dry ice sublimation.
Madison County Judge Dennis R. Ruth, however, rejected those arguments and allowed the case to proceed to trial.
There, jurors sided with the Johnson family. On Feb. 27, at the conclusion of the trial, the jury ordered Prairie Farms and PFD to collectively pay the Johnson family $241 million, including $49.5 million in compensatory damages and an additional $191.5 million in compensatory damages.
“Despite fully understanding the dangers of transporting dry ice in a subcompact vehicle, Prairie Farms Dairy never ensured training, written protocols, or that any warnings would go to Mr. Johnson regarding the serious risks involved,” said attorney Patrick A. Salvi II, of the Salvi Schostok firm, in a statement following the verdict. “No one shared this critical safety information with him, and as a result, his death was both tragic and entirely preventable. He leaves behind a wife and two disabled children who relied on him for daily support, along with three adult children who deeply loved their father.”
Prairie Farms did not respond to a request for comment concerning the verdict.
It is not known if the company will seek to appeal.
