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NEWS MyEagleNews.com Wednesday, May 20, 2020 A9 Record jury award stands in wake of fatal Eastern Oregon road rage crash By Phil Wright EO Media Group Road-raging commercial driv- ers caused the head-on crash in 2016 near Burns that left Matthew Allison with serious injuries and took the life of his wife, Sara Allison. Now the record jury verdict he won in May 2019 in federal court in Pendleton remains standing. Portland-based attorney Tom D’Amore and law partner Steve Brady represented Matthew Allison, 27, of Boise and the estate of his wife in the lawsuit. “We are proud of the result of this case,” D’Amore said. “It’s a relief that the case is officially over and the defendant cannot appeal again. There is a feeling that justice has been done.” ‘Pay the verdict’ The jury awarded a total of $26.5 million to the plaintiffs. But Hori- zon Transport in July filed a 42-page motion asking the federal court for a new trial or to reduce the amount of the jury verdict. The court denied both. “It’s a pretty high standard, though, to take away a jury verdict or issue a new trial,” D’Amore said. The defendants then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. D’Amore said the company wanted to settle, just as it had wanted to settle at trial. “We pretty much said no, pay the verdict,” D’Amore said. The Ninth Circuit has a media- tion program, which contacted the parties and urged them to show up and participate. They did, D’Amore said, and the sides resolve the case in Contributed photo Matthew and Sara Allison beam in a photo taken in front of Crater Lake, their last bit of Oregon sightseeing, before leaving to return home to Boise in June 2017. April — with the $26.5 million ver- dict intact. The estate of Sara Allison won economic damages of of almost $2.4 million and non-economic damages of $10 million. Matthew Allison won $600,000 in economic damages and $7 million in non-economic dam- ages. The defendants also had to pay $6.5 million in punitive damages, with 70% going to the state of Ore- gon’s Crime Victims Fund to pay for care for other victims of crime. But no amount of money, D’Amore stressed, will make up for the loss of Sara Allison, who in 2014 worked full time while caring for her husband when he developed leukemia. “Sara was his everything, his caretaker, the bread winner for the family, his whole reason for being,” D’Amore said. Celebration ends in tragedy Matthew Allison during the course of two years overcame the blood disorder and subsequent health problems. After completing physi- cal therapy in April 2016, the couple took a trip through Oregon. “It was our way to celebrate hav- ing got through that tough time together,” Matthew said at the trial. “It was a much-needed break.” They enjoyed a concert in Port- land, hiked in Mount Hood National Forest and on June 5 they visited at Crater Lake before the push home to Boise. They stopped in Burns to fuel up their Ford Focus and have Mat- thew take over as driver. But he tes- tified his wife saw how exhausted he was, so she decided to let her hus- band sleep. They were on narrow Highway 20 east of Burns when the crash occurred. James Decou, Peter Barnes and Corey Frew were driving semitrail- ers for Utah-based Smoot Broth- ers Transportation from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Eugene, according to D’Amore, depositions, court doc- uments and police reports. Near Mountain Home, Idaho, they had a run-in with a motorhome driver, Jon- athan Hogaboom of Taylor, Michi- gan. He was driving a 45-foot long, $750,000 luxury motorhome for Horizon Transport from Indiana for delivery in Oregon. According to court records, he cut off Barnes on the freeway and slammed on the brakes to shoot for an exit. Hogaboom and the three truckers met up again on Highway 20 in East- ern Oregon. They raced to pass each other, cut each other off and pulled in front of each other only to slam on the brakes. Hogaboom on more than one occasion blasted the big RV’s air horn when he was next to one of the semis and flipped the bird to one driver. Decou tried to pass Hogaboom, who would not let the trucker back into the westbound lane. Near mile- post 156, Decou and Sara Allison saw each other in the same lane. She jerked the car to the right and off the road and into the dirt. Decou hit the brakes, slid and turned to the left. The semi plowed into the car, mashing the driver’s side. Sara Alli- son died in the crash. Matthew Allison suffered broken ribs, a lacerated spleen, head trauma and more. The verdict gives him the ability to take care of himself med- ically and even afford a caretaker if he needs one, D’Amore said, but he remains “just mentally decimated” from the death of his wife. Outcome sends message The four commercial drivers in this case, D’Amore said, lost con- trol of their senses and tempers and ignored other people on the road. He and his partner aimed to do more than win a verdict — D’amore said they wanted to wake up the trucking industry to the dangers of road rage. Judging from industry magazines reporting the verdict, he said, they hit that mark. “They don’t talk about plaintiff verdicts,” he said. “We tried to make the point that road rage was getting worse, and it’s because of these folks who have commercial licenses and are trained in this and are on the road all the time.” With the legal action at an end, D’Amore said Matthew Allison is on a trek to Utah and wants to be alone for two months. “He’s been living with this disas- ter for the past two years or so, and so he is just kind of seeing what he wants to do for the rest of his life,” D’Amore said. “He wants to be left alone, and we’re going to honor that.” Hammond Ranches drops appeal, for now, to compete for grazing allotments By Mateusz Perkowski EO Media Group EO Media Group file photo Cattle graze in Eastern Oregon. sentences. They had been convicted of burning public lands. Though the Interior Department restored the grazing permit to Hammond Ranches in 2019, a federal judge overturned that deci- it has done so “without preju- dice,” which means the com- pany reserves the right to rein- state its legal objection, said Schroeder, its attorney. The federal judge’s deci- sion that rescinded the grazing permit did not vacate the graz- ing preference for Hammond Ranches, so the company still holds that preference, he said. “We’re certainly maintaining that position.” Grazing preferences are important because they attach to a “base property” in the vicinity of the federal allot- ments, placing the ranch first in line for a grazing permit. In effect, such a grazing pref- erence greatly enhances the value of a property. However, a federal judge determined this year that BLM can cancel such a preference without a notice and hearing at the same time it decides against renewing a grazing permit. Cattle groups argued that treating grazing preferences this way would undermine the stability of the Western graz- ing system and reduce the val- ues of private ranch lands. In its application for a permit, Hammond Ranches warned that it would demand “immediate compensation” for its range improvements, water rights and intermingled private lands if BLM awards access to the allotments to another ranch. Grant SWCD Weed Weed Control Control Dept. Dept. Grant SWCD Working for You You in in 2020 2019 Working for Wendy Cates Principal Broker/GRI 541-620-4239 Debbie Brown Broker 541-419-8156 S189135-1 Oregon’s Hammond Ranches has dropped a legal challenge against the federal government, at least for now, to compete for access to graz- ing allotments it lost last year. Instead of waiting until the legal dispute is resolved, the U.S. Bureau of Land Man- agement can now choose whether the Hammond family or one of three neighboring ranches can use the 26,000- acre BLM allotments. Hammond Ranches hopes that U.S. Interior Secre- tary David Bernhardt and the BLM will issue a permit to graze the four allotments as soon as possible, though it’s possible they may not be available for livestock this year, said Alan Schroeder, the company’s attorney. “It’s tough to speculate what the secretary will do or the BLM will do,” he said. “One would certainly hope the BLM would move for- ward forthwith.” The agency will conduct an analysis of qualified candi- dates but doesn’t have a spe- cific timeframe for awarding the grazing permit, said Tara Thissell, pubic affairs spe- cialist for the BLM Burns District. Steven Hammond and his father, Dwight Hammond, were released from prison in 2018 after President Donald Trump granted pardons for their arson convictions, for which they were serving five- year mandatory minimum sion after agreeing with envi- ronmentalists that it wasn’t properly substantiated. Because Hammond Ranches had again lost access to the public allotments, the company’s administrative appeal — which sought to recover its grazing permit — was effectively re-activated. However, earlier this year, the BLM announced that it would allow the Hammonds and other ranchers to compete for the allotments. Unless the Hammonds withdrew their legal chal- lenge, however, the agency would suspend that process until the dispute was resolved. While Hammond Ranches has now withdrawn its appeal, Thanks to the Grant County Court and Northeast Oregon Forests Resource Advisory Committee, Grant Weed Control is able to offer a 50% Cost Share Program for Noxious Weed Control on Private Grazing Lands, through a Title II funded Grant Project. This program will provide a maximum $5,000 of noxious weed control services with a $2,500 maximum landowner contribution to qualifying participants. To be eligible for participation, the treatment property must not be actively irrigated and must be primarily managed for livestock grazing, minimum of 20 acres in size, located within Grant County, and must contain weed species listed on the Grant County Noxious Weed List. Applications for this limited weed control assistance opportunity will be funded on a first come first serve basis. Applications due by June 5th. Contact the Grant Soil and Water Conservation District Office at (541) 575-1554 or visit 721 S. Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845 for applications and additional information. S184611-1 117734 Join our School Today ──── Love to Learn! BLUE MOUNTAIN EAGLE EARLY DEADLINE ──── Class sizes are limited ──── ENROLL TODAY SONSHINE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL Register before July 31st ──── Office Hours: Tues-Thurs 8:00 am-3:00 pm 1. Registrations are being accepted for 2020-21 school year We offer a high-quality school-readiness program for little learners. *Eligibility requirements apply. Pre-Kindergarten (4-5 yrs): 3 days a week, (T, W, TH). Now registering for morning & afternoon classes. *Must be 4 years old by Sept. 1, 2020. Pre-School (3-4 yrs): 2 days a week, (T, TH) 8:15 am- 10:45 am. *Must be 3 years of age by Sept 1 st , 2020 and be independent when using the bathroom. For the May 27th Edition Ad, Classified & Legal Deadline Thursday, May 21st by 5 p.m. SONSHINE SONSHINE CHRISTIAN CHRISTIAN SCHOOL SCHOOL 521 E Main St. 521 E Main Street John Day John Day 541-575-1895 or 541-575-1895 or 541-968-9865 541-968-9865 office@ johndaynazarene office@johndaynazarene.com .com S178850-1 Our Office will be closed May 25th in observance of Memorial Day 117768 S187706-1
