June 26, 2002
Source: By Chad Halcom, Macomb Daily Staff Writer
The bereaved family of a mother and daughter, killed shortly after they disembarked a bus on Gratiot Avenue in Roseville, stands to collect more than $4 million for their loss under a jury verdict Tuesday.
After two days of deliberation, jurors awarded $3.75 million in damages to relatives of Michelle Hunter, 35, and 2-year-old Jada Polk, in a lawsuit against Charles Essian Jr. of Warren and Essian Painting and Decorating of Washington Township.
With interest accrued in the 2-year-old lawsuit, officials expect the payout to top $4 million.
"Macomb County is notorious, even with cases of merit, for juries that refuse to award damages," said Geoffrey Fieger, an attorney for Polk's estate in the case. "I'm glad this jury didn't listen to the rhetoric of blaming the victims, and didn't allow those responsible to blame anyone but themselves."
Hunter and Polk met their deaths while crossing northbound Gratiot in October 1999, when a service van attempting to pass a slow-going tractor-trailer truck struck them.
Hunter's mother, Sylvia Watts, and Polk's father, Wendell Polk, sought seven-figure damages in the case.
"I remember as soon as I seen a cop, telling him that I was the driver," Essian recalled, prior to the verdict. "I ... went and I pounded on the house door, and told (fiancee) Tracy to call 911."
The defense tried to argue that Essian did all he could to cooperate and aid police after the crash, and some responsibility fell on Hunter for where she had chosen to cross the roadway.
"He (Fieger) wants to make out Mr. Essian as someone despicable, because that way they'll get more money," said Craig Nemier, an attorney for Essian and the company.
"The little bit of time she could have taken (before crossing) makes all the difference between tragedy and life."
Both sides concede that Essian, the driver of the company vehicle that struck Hunter and Polk, didn't stop at the accident scene and proceeded instead toward a residence nearby on Gratiot. The defense claims he was summoning help from a loved one there.
Roseville police investigated Essian's role in the accident, but the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office declined to bring criminal charges against him.
Alcohol wasn't a factor in the crash and Essian's driver license was current and valid at the time of the accident, police say.
"I was terrified. I'd killed two people," Essian testified in the 4-week trial. "I thought my life was over. I didn't know what was going to happen, I felt so bad."
It happened in the northbound lanes of Gratiot between 10 Mile and Frazho roads, Roseville. Officials explain Hunter and Jada had just disembarked a Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation bus and were crossing Gratiot to reach the Eastgate Early Learning Center on the opposite side.
Hunter paused in a center lane of traffic to allow a tractor-trailer truck to pass in the left lane, when Essian's van came around the truck and hit her.
Young Jada apparently died at the scene or shortly after impact. Hunter died later when medical efforts failed to save her.
Macomb County Circuit Judge James M. Biernat ruled that, since it was not illegal to cross Gratiot where Hunter did, the jury could not consider that as a factor in determining who was to blame.
"She didn't have to cross somewhere else, or at some other time. There's no law that says you have to anticipate when someone else might do something illegal," Fieger said. v "I mean, you can't say someone shouldn't cross at an intersection when the light is red, just because some idiots run red lights. This is the same thing."