$5 Million Pat McPhail Case Summary

Case Summary

In 2016, Antonio Maggini filed suit against his former employer, Kevin Turner, owner of the RiverPro boat shop in Hillsboro, Missouri. Maggini’s battery claim stemmed from an April 7, 2015 incident in which Turner allegedly punched him in the head more than 15 times, smashed his face into a wall, choked him, and struck him with an object. Maggini sought medical treatment for neck, back, and shoulder strain, along with cuts and abrasions.

Key Highlights

• Compensatory damages were intentionally limited to pain and suffering. Simon Law attorney Pat McPhail tried the case as a punitive damages case from the first day of jury selection, focused on punishing and deterring Turner’s conduct rather than on the size of the injury.
• Turner, counterclaims, alleging Maggini conspired with a coworker, James Johnson, to provoke and secretly record a violent confrontation in order to expose Turner to liability and take over the business. Pat successfully argued that the conspiracy counterclaims did not meet the Missouri legal standard, and the judge granted summary judgment. The judge also dismissed the claim against Johnson.
• Some of the best fireworks from the case happened when Pat called the defendant to the stand as a witness in Plaintiff’s case. Turner admitted that it was his practice to secretly record people who came into his office and acknowledged on the stand that he had made “dozens” of recordings of Maggini. He had produced exactly one in response to a discovery request for all statements of the plaintiff. The court found that the existence of the other recordings should have been disclosed and, as a sanction under Rule 61.01, struck Turner’s abuse-of-process. counterclaim.
• Turner testified that Maggini charged him with a knife, but the jury found this defense not credible.

Case Analysis

Pat tried the case on credibility more than any dispute about what the law required. Three people were in the shop that afternoon, and only one of them had nothing to gain. The defense spent much of the trial trying to recast Maggini as an insubordinate employee and to make use of a recorded telephone call in which Johnson made hostile remarks about him. That strategy carried a cost: Turner’s admissions about his recording habits exposed the discovery violation that cost him a counterclaim, and the court instructed the jury that the recorded call could not be considered on his self-defense claim at all. What was left for the jury was a choice between the account given by Maggini and the only neutral witness, and the account of a defendant who admitted choking and slamming a man half his size into a wall. Ultimately, the jury rejected both Turner’s self-defense argument and his broader counter-narrative, siding decisively with Maggini across the board.

Outcome/ Impact

After a three-day trial, the jury found in favor of Maggini on all claims, awarding a $5.1 million verdict. None of the jurors found merit in any of Turner’s counterclaims. The verdict delivered meaningful emotional and moral vindication for Pat’s client.
Contact Simon Law attorney Patrick McPhail at pmcphail@simonlawpc.com for more information about this case.

Additional Information:

Phillips, Nicholas. 2017 SLU Law graduate wins $5M jury verdict. Missouri Lawyers Media. March 12, 2019. https://molawyersmedia.com/2019/03/12/2017-slu-law-graduate-wins-5m-jury-verdict/