The daughter of a pilot who died in a 1992 car wreck after being hit head-on by a driver said to have used cocaine has been awarded $10 million by a Mobile County Circuit Court jury, but an appeal is planned.
Joseph Eugene “Willie” Clark Sr., an airline pilot who also had flown several Mobile corporations, died for two weeks after the March 25, 1992, collision on Wolf Road in Prichard.
Clark’s vehicle was hit by a car driven by Shawn Ledale Harris, an employee of Jack’s Auto Clean, which details and cleans automobiles for local dealerships, court records show.
The car Harris was driving was owned by Performance Toyota of Mobile, a now-defunct automobile dealership.
The joint jury verdict last week was against Performance Toyota and Jack’s Auto Clean.
Harris, who was returning the car to the Performance lot of Airport Boulevard, also was killed in the wreck.
According to trial testimony, Harris had ingested cocaine prior to the accident and likely was suffering withdrawal.
Genie Eran Clark, who is handling her late father’s estate, filed the lawsuit.
“Evidence in the case supported our contention that Jack’s and Toyota were involved in a joint enterprise,” her lawyer Joseph M. “Buddy” Brown said at the end of the three-day trial.
The verdict definitely will be appealed, according to Jack Tolbert of Jack’s Auto Clean on St. Stephens Road.
“A verdict like that would kind of force you to appeal,” Tolbert said Thursday. “We’re just sitting out here with a little old small business.”
Lawyers Involved: