AUSTIN — A Texas trial court's ruling was upheld in a lawsuit file by the father of a young child who was killed in a tragic accident. Justice Tracy Christopher's opinion was filed in the Fourteenth Court of Appeals earlier this month.
Brandon Gardner had appealed the trial court's judgement that awarded him $1.1 million for the wrongful death of his 12-year-old daughter Bre'in Gardner. Gardner claimed the trial court erred in excluding evidence that his daughter's mother Leah Bullock was biased against him because she received a large settlement from Texas Disposal Systems, Inc., and had romantic feelings for him.
The initial lawsuit was filed after Bre'in was killed when a Texas Disposal Systems employee negligently drive a truck with it's "boom" up and hit a bridge, causing it to collapse onto Bullock's car. She, too, was hurt in the incident, but her too other young children were unharmed. Gardner sued the company to recover damages as a statutory wrongful-death beneficiary. Bullock also sued, but their lawsuits were eventually combined. Bullock settled her claims and TDS stipulated to its liability to Brandon.
The case went to trial for the sole issue of Gardner's compensatory damages. The jury awarded him $1.1 million for past and future anguish over the loss of his daughter. The trial court denied his motion for a new trial, so Garner appealed. The appeals court found Gardner failed to preserve the complaints that the trial court excluded evidence of how much Bullock settled with TDS for and her romantic interest in him. The appeals court found Gardner did not attempt to introduce evidence of the settlement amount during trial and found nothing to review when it comes to Bullock's romantic feelings towards Gardner. It ultimately overruled the issue and upheld the trial court's judgement.