TBO.com
6/10/2009
A jury has awarded more than $5.5 million to the family of a man who died in a 2001 car crash. Douglas DeRycke died the night of Jan. 18, 2001, after the car he was riding in crashed, then rolled out of control in Pinellas County, according to a written statement released today by the law firm of Tampa attorney Steve Yerrid. DeRycke was the president of Indiana-based CraWal Container, and he and his wife were in a vehicle driven by an executive of the Packaging Corp. of America, according to the statement. The corporation’s liability in the crash was adjudicated earlier this week. A jury awarded DeRycke’s wife, Gayle, and surviving family members $5,565,413 in the wrongful death lawsuit. “It was a battle every step of the way, but we won the war,” Yerrid, the lead trial lawyer for the DeRycke family, said in a prepared statement. A motion for attorneys’ fees and costs will be pending against Packaging Corp., said David Dickey, who tried the case with Yerrid.