Big Dig lawsuit set to break record for damages

From the Boston Globe: "Lawyers eye huge Big Dig settlement - Wrongful death case could be landmark"

Lawyers for Milena Del Valle's family are building a case for a landmark settlement of potentially hundreds of millions of dollars for what they describe as the outrageously egregious acts that led to her death in last summer's Big Dig ceiling collapse, according to a 15-page memo obtained by the Globe.

The lawyers did not specify a price for settling the family's lawsuit against an array of contracting firms and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, but said the case should be compared to those that have produced some of the largest jury awards in US history, including the $450 million in punitive damages awarded to the widow of a sheriff-elect in Georgia assassinated by his rival in 2000. If anything, the lawyers predicted, a Massachusetts jury would award the Del Valle family even more money.

The largest punitive award in a Massachusetts court was $27.5 million for a man killed on the MBTA, later reduced to $1 million. But the comprehensive neglect by state officials and private contractors in this tragedy all but guarantees that there will be a huge settlement to avoid more bad publicity.