We represented the eight adult children of a 71-year-old disabled woman who was hit by a school bus while driving her motorized scooter in a crosswalk in San Jose and subsequently died. We sued the driver of the bus, the company that employed him and owned the bus, and the public entity that hired the bus company to drive its students.

Together the defendants denied the driver was negligent. However, we obtained surveillance video from a nearby business, as well as video onboard the school bus, and created a reconstruction of the accident that showed the driver’s head was turned to his left at the time he struck the victim, instead of facing ahead as it should have been. If the driver had been properly attentive, the accident would never have happened.

In addition to proving fault for the accident, one of the great challenges in this case was proving the value of the loss of care, guidance, and support the decedent gave to each of the plaintiffs. We spent months getting to know her children, who described their mother as the matriarch of their family and the glue that held them together.

By delving into her life story, we learned the decedent emigrated from Mexico as a young woman, hoping for a better life for her children in the U.S. A single mother, she worked at factory jobs to support them, despite having only one leg. She truly was an inspiration to her children, who credit her as their role model and the reason for their success in life.

Minami Tamaki LLP Partner Mark Fong and Senior Associate Seema Bhatt settled the clients’ claims at mediation for a total of $7 million.