A Nashville jury has awarded a $20.7 million to two Alabama families after two men were killed in a car accident while working for country rapper Mikel Knight, whose real name is Jason Cross.
According to a press release from a plaintiff that represented the families the accident occurred in 2014. The victims were Taylor Nixon, 19, and Robert Underfinger, 18.
The two were working for Cross's business Maverick Dirt Road Street Team or MDRST. They were alleged to have been required to work long hours and drive a large number of miles to sell CDs at various places.
The plainiffs argued that the conditions led to "extreme driver fatigue" for those working for MDRST.
On June 16, 2014 Nixon and Underfinger were passengers traveling in Texas in a van owned by Cross. The driver fell asleep at the wheel, leading to the accident were Nixon and Underfinger were killed.
Nixon's mother was awarded $3,006,937 and $2,711,638 was awarded to the mother of Robert Underfinger.
In the verdict the jury found Cross to be "grossly negligent in the trading, hiring, and retention practices of his company that lead to the deaths of these two young men" and so awarded $15,000,000 in punitive damages.
The plainiffs were represented by Joseph Morris of Morris, Andrews, Talmadge and Driggers in Dothan and co-counsels Tracy Cary from Birmingham and William Hickey from Nashville.
“This case involved many delays due to COVID, Mikel Knight changing counsel, procedural issues, tracking down witnesses, and taking many depositions, but in the end it was worth it seeing the satisfaction of the mothers finally having a jury hold Mikel Knight accountable,” said Morris.
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