Hughes

BACKGROUND

The accident occurred on May 28, 2016, at around 6:20 a.m., at the intersection of Mendocino Avenue and 10th Street in Santa Rosa. Hughes filed her complaint against Libeu in December 2017 and subsequently added Herc as a defendant. Pretrial litigation was extensive. Trial was conducted in two phases. In May 2022, a court trial was held to decide two issues not challenged on appeal. The court found (1) at the time

1 of the collision Libeu was borrowing, rather than renting, the truck from his employer, and (2) a waiver and release entered into by Hughes, Herc, and Herc’s insurance company was not enforceable. In early 2023, a jury trial was held to resolve Hughes’s claim that defendants were liable for her damages due to Libeu’s negligence. The jury heard evidence about the accident from four percipient witnesses and two accident reconstruction experts. Multiple witnesses also testified about Hughes’s injuries. The Accident Santa Rosa Police Officer Timothy Gillette, who was dispatched to the 2016 accident, did not testify at trial, but excerpts from his deposition were read into the record. According to that testimony, when Gillette arrived at the scene, Libeu’s…