Inside the Courtroom, Outside the Norm – Three Defining Moments
- Staggering Verdict: Jury awards $145.26 million, including $60 million in punitive damages, against Berkshire Hathaway-owned Norguard Insurance, dwarfing their $750K pre-trial offer.
- High Stakes, Hardball Tactics: Plaintiff’s lawyer Sean Claggett rejected multiple lowball offers, relying on real-time data analytics and focus group insights to predict—and deliver—a nine-figure jury verdict.
- Justice for an Injured Worker: After being denied critical rehab, Fermin Salguero-Quijada was left permanently impaired. A Colorado jury ensured his family’s future with one of the largest bad-faith insurance verdicts in state history.
By Samuel Lopez – USA Herald
Denver, CO – In a seismic ruling that shook the insurance world, a Colorado state jury delivered a resounding $145.26 million verdict—including $60 million in punitive damages—against Berkshire Hathaway’s Norguard Insurance Company. The case stemmed from the insurer’s alleged bad-faith denial of critical care to a painter, Fermin Salguero-Quijada, after he suffered a life-altering traumatic brain injury on the job.
Though the story flew under the radar in mainstream headlines, its courtroom drama, strategic legal maneuvering, and moral undertones carry the weight of a modern-day legal epic.
In 2021, Salguero-Quijada, an apartment complex painter working in Utah, plunged from a ladder while on the job. The fall left him with significant neurological trauma. Following an initial hospital stay, doctors recommended intensive, long-term inpatient rehabilitation. That’s when, according to the lawsuit, his battle really began.
Norguard Insurance, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, denied coverage for the specialized facility. Instead, Salguero-Quijada was put on a commercial flight—still neurologically impaired—and sent home to be cared for by his family.
The result, his attorneys claimed, was catastrophic. Without proper rehabilitation, his brain injury became permanent.
