BROKEN BOW–On December 13, 2018 a jury reached a verdict that the injuries sustained to Chad Christensen in the two-vehicle accident that claimed three lives in 2012, was not the fault of Albert Sherbeck or his wife Beverly Sherbeck (click here for the jury story).
Following the decision of the jury, the Christensen attorneys filed a motion for a new trial based on what they believed “confused the jury and prejudiced the plaintiffs.” James Duncan (Christensen attorney) argued that a lack of evidence proving loss of consciousness forced the jury to speculate.
On Thursday, January 3, 2019 the motion was heard by District Court Judge Karin Noakes with both sides making their arguments. Duncan made his argument by referring to previous cases in which the defense had to prove loss of consciousness. He felt in the December trial there was not enough evidence to support the idea that Sherbeck had lost consciousness before the collision.
Arguments made by Sherbeck’s attorney, Daniel Placzek, and Broken Bow Public School attorney, Matthew Reilly, focused their arguments on asking the court to overrule the motion for a retrial.
Both Placzek and Reilly referred back to evidence given during the trial and they also made arguments regarding previous cases dealing with negligence and foreseeability.
They each stated that previous cases actually had less evidence than that which was brought forward by Sherbeck and the school, yet previous cases were still ruled in favor of the defense.
Judge Noakes took all the arguments into advisement and told the court she would have a decision as soon as possible.
