EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – A Madison County jury has ordered Prairie Farms Dairy to pay $241 million to the family of a worker who died while transporting dry ice in the St. Louis area.
The verdict comes nearly 10 years after family members of Eric Johnson, a courier working for a third-party delivery company, filed a wrongful death lawsuit.
On Friday, a jury awarded $191.5 million in punitive damages and $49.5 million in compensatory damages to Johnson’s family over his death.
According to the lawsuit, on Aug. 5, 2016, Johnson arrived at Prairie Farms Dairy’s supply facility in St. Charles. His courier service, CJS Express, was hired to transport four coolers offrozen strawberries filled with dry ice to Fayetteville, Arkansas…