A $13.2 million jury verdict secured by Burns Charest attorneys Darren Nicholson and Hannah Crowe against American Airlines has been cited as the 30th-largest verdict in California for 2025 by TopVerdict.com. 

The case involved the crew on a flight from Miami to Madrid failing to follow American’s policies and procedures when a passenger suffered a stroke shortly after takeoff in 2021. Jesus Plasencia, a beloved chef from Watsonville, California, suffered debilitating injuries because American never diverted the flight, resulting in an eight-hour delay to Mr. Plasencia getting stroke treatment. 

Evidence presented during the six-day trial confirmed Mr. Plasencia suffered a transient ischemic attack, or TIA, while onboard the flight at the gate in Miami. Mr. Plasencia’s wife alerted a flight attendant that her husband had temporarily lost motor and speech control. But rather than report the incident to medical personnel as required by the airline’s policies, the pilot cleared Mr. Plasencia for take-off.

When Mr. Plasencia exhibited additional stroke symptoms during the flight, the flight crew asked other passengers to watch him but did not inform the pilot about what was happening.

View the list of top California verdicts.