Motorcyclist v. boar
Award: $8,118,859
Forty-year-old motorcyclist sustained massive brain injuries after colliding with a dead boar on a highway regularly used as a boar crossing, a situation CalTrans knew existed (Rogers v. State of California, Monterey County Superior Court, Plaintiff attorney: Lawrence E. Biegel).

FMLA violation
Award: $2,812,000
Chinese woman was terminated from Toyota Motor Corporation due to pregnancy/maternity leave and ethnicity (Sun v. Toyota Motor Corp., Los Angeles County Superior Court, Plaintiff attorney: Carney R. Sherigan).

Broken neck
Award: $44,592,074
Working in the course and scope of employment, the driver of a truck drove through an intersection on a red light and collided with a 41-year-old driver’s vehicle, rendering her a quadriplegic (Roth v. Division 1 All Service Inc., San Mateo County Superior Court, Plaintiff attorney: Mary E. Alexander).

Employee retaliation
Award: $1,200,000
Newport Beach police officer was discriminated against for reporting misdeeds of fellow officers and for a perception that he was homosexual (Harvey v. City of Newport Beach, Orange County Superior Court, Plaintiff attorney: John A. Girardi).

Consumer protection
Award: $3,000,000
Companies targeted mostly elderly homeowners with fraudulent schemes for shoddy and inadequate home repair work performed by unlicensed and unskilled contractors (The People of the State of California v. Mkhitarian, San Diego County Superior Court, Plaintiff attorney: Edmund G. Brown Jr.).

Medical malpractice
Award: $2,899,887
Despite numerous exams and tests, doctors failed to detect ovarian cancer in 31-year-old woman, who ultimately died from the disease (Berger v. Kim, Los Angeles County Superior Court, Plaintiff attorney: Martin Stanley).

Unpaid commissions
Award: $17,500,000
Top RV salesman was abruptly terminated and his computer confiscated before he could enter over 100 orders, sensitive personal information deleted (Trealoff v. Forest River Inc., San Bernardino County Superior Court, Plaintiff attorney: Jeffrey A. Tidus).

Children killed
Award: $2,410,000
Three young children died in a collision caused by a Tulare County correctional officer running a stop sign at highway speed (Rader v. County of Tulare, Tulare County Superior Court, Plaintiff attorney: Richard C. Watters).

Editor's Note: California Bar Journal publishes this abbreviated summary of important trials in California provided by Trials Digest, a Thomson West business. To report your case results, go to west.thomson.com/trialsdigest/form.asp or call 415-344-6000.