Douglas County jury rejects $315,000 claim in Lawrence crash dispute
A Douglas County jury threw out a $315,000 demand over a rainy Lawrence fender-bender, ending a case that began with photos, phone numbers and no police call.
A Douglas County jury rejected a $315,000 claim tied to a low-speed crash at 23rd and Massachusetts streets in Lawrence, ending a case that grew from a rainy November fender-bender into nearly five years of litigation. The verdict on June 24, 2026, left Dana Laberge without liability on the damages sought by Sean Lefler.
The collision happened on a rainy November evening about five years before the verdict, when Laberge’s Honda Civic hit the rear of Lefler’s Nissan. The two men stopped, looked over the damage, took photos of the dents and buckles, exchanged contact information and left without calling police. Neither driver said he was injured at the scene.
The dispute changed course months later, when Lefler texted Laberge asking whether he might help pay for knee surgery. Lefler later sued in 2023. At trial, his lawyer, Michael Lester, asked jurors to award at least $315,000, including $225,000 for pain and suffering. That pain claim was built on an argument that Lefler had endured 1,500 days of pain at $150 per day.
Laberge fought back by challenging Lefler’s account of how the crash unfolded. He said it was dark and raining heavily, and maintained that Lefler’s Nissan was turning left and partially straddling the lane for straight-ahead traffic when the vehicles made contact. Kansas law gives jurors the framework for sorting out the case. Under the state’s modified comparative negligence rule, a claimant can recover only if his own fault is less than the defendant’s, and any award is reduced by the claimant’s share of fault. Kansas law also requires drivers in crashes involving injury or vehicle damage to stop and exchange information.
The case also unfolded against a Kansas Supreme Court ruling that reshaped injury litigation statewide. In its June 14, 2019 decision in Hilburn v. Enerpipe, the court struck down Kansas’s noneconomic-damages cap as unconstitutional as applied in that rear-end crash case, where a jury had returned a $335,000 verdict.
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