Plaintiff Joanna Poppink brought a negligence suit against the occupants of a car that sideswiped hers at 2–3 miles per hour on a surface street. She claimed that the accident caused serious physical and mental injuries resulting in nearly $2 million in damages. The defendants admitted negligence but challenged causation and damages. At trial, the defense introduced evidence that plaintiff had exaggerated her injuries and that any injuries resulted from normal age-based degeneration rather than sudden trauma. The jury returned a defense verdict based on lack of causation, and plaintiff appealed. She argued that because a defense expert testified that she suffered at least a bruise from the accident, the jury could not find a lack of causation.
Defendants retained Horvitz & Levy to preserve the judgment on appeal, and the Court of Appeal affirmed. The court accepted Horvitz & Levy’s argument that the jury was entitled to disregard the defense expert’s off-the-cuff comment about potential bruising in deciding causation while relying on defense experts’ opinions that the accident did not cause the serious injuries alleged by the plaintiff.
Poppink v. Assin 
