Woman injured by driver wins $150,000 award

Woman injured by driver wins $150,000 award

A jury has awarded a Havre woman $150,000 for injuries she suffered three years ago when an elderly man struck her with his car in the parking lot of the Havre Clinic.

Mary Castillo sued Charles Shaffer for actual and punitive damages and the 12-person jury on Tuesday night determined she was entitled to $150,000. Castillo had been getting out of her car on Jan. 16, 2001, at the clinic when Shaffer backed into her door, pinning her between the door and the frame of the car.

Shaffer's attorney, Paul Haffeman, said in one court document that bystanders may have yelled at Shaffer to stop, but he was too deaf to hear them because of injuries he suffered in combat during World War II.

Castillo suffered a variety of injuries during the wreck at the clinic, the most serious of which were to her legs and knees, according to medical records included in the court file.

She sought more than $750,000 in damages.

Shaffer, who was 87 at the time of the accident, admitted that he was at fault, but contested the amount of damages Castillo was seeking. He died before the case went to trial, and his family continued to contest the lawsuit on behalf of his estate. The case went to trial on Monday and lasted through Tuesday afternoon. The jury returned its verdict shortly after 7 p.m.

Court records show that Shaffer had been involved in at least two accidents in the 10 years prior to the crash at the Havre Clinic. According to transcripts of witness depositions and other documents, Shaffer's insurance company in 1993 paid a claim of $510 after he backed into a vehicle, and paid a second claim of more than $10,000 in 1997 following a collision at an intersection.

Documents from the Montana Department of Transportation show that it took Shaffer three tries to pass a 2002 driving exam, and that a Havre Police Officer recommended that Shaffer's license be revoked.

Shaffer could not remember the accidents in 1993 and 1997, according to a deposition taken after the accident at the Havre Clinic.