"Yeah, I see him," said the foreman, "but he don't look so good."
"Would you point him out to us?" Shorty requested.
The foreman pointed to the table where Garner sat, pale, skinny and looking like he hadn't slept for a month.
"And what do you mean 'he don't look so good'," Shorty prodded.
"He was strong and healthy and used to run up the side of columns like a squirrel running up the side of a tree," the foreman replied. "Now, I couldn't even let him on the construction site. He's too weak looking. He might hurt himself."
A parade of witnesses followed. The men of the construction site talked of the bravery and strength of their column filler. With exaggerated pride they talked of the dangers of their work and how the strength and wits of 'the man who likes tacos' overcame the enormous dangers. Two professors from UTSA spoke with great pride about the intelligence and potential of their star student. Character witnesses from Casa del Norte spoke of Garner's plans and how they had also planned to use him when they needed a builder. The greatness of Garner's former self was exaggerated because it exaggerated the importance of the people who had associated with him. The last witness Shorty called was the spongy Mexican American that Garner had pulled out of the river. The man had enjoyed a few months of celebrity with free beer and free meals at his usual haunts. He had also added another thirty pounds to his already impressive girth. He sat in the witness box looking like he might spill out over the railings.
"And this is the man who pulled you out of the river?" Shorty asked the spongy man as he pointed at Garner.
"Yes, he saved my life," the man said, with pride dampened by sadness.
"This is the man?" Shorty repeated as he walked over and pointed at Garner, the pale, emaciated victim of corporate cruelty. He then walked back to the witness box and stood next to the large man using his own body to scale the differences between the two men. The spongy man in the witness box seem to be three times larger than the man at the attorney's table and the idea that the pale man could have pulled this large witness out of the river was difficult if not impossible to believe.
"Yeah," continued the witness, "but he looked a lot better then." It was exactly the response that Shorty was looking for. The previous Garner was healthy, strong, and on his way to a good future. Now, largely due to the negligence of this grocery store, Garner was thin and pale and going nowhere. Somebody would have to compensate him for his lose and Shorty could see the connection being made in the minds of the jury.
The attorneys for HEB had to cross-examine the witnesses with great care. They were all respectable members of the community and the only weakness in their testimony was a tendency toward exaggeration. The best defense they could mount would be to control the damage. They tried to bring the testimony into a more realistic focus without looking as though they were questioning the integrity of these people. The grocery store was already looking like the bad guy. If the behavior of the attorney's reinforced that notion, it could be costly in awarded damaged.
The HEB defense team debated the value of putting the store manager on the stand. It was a high-risk long shot that could easily go against them. But with the evidence mounting the way that it was, they felt that introducing a little doubt about who should bear the responsibility was worth the risk they were taking.
"Could you tell us what you saw a few minutes before the incident," the questioning attorney prodded.
The store manager shifted nervously in the witness box. He wrung his hands and could not look at either the jury or the defense attorney. He looked into his lap and mumbled.
"I'm sorry, could you speak up a bit," the attorney requested sensing that they had made a strategic mistake.
"He was looking at a bunch of grapes and dropped two on the floor," the manger said nervously. It sounded like he had memorized the line.
"Who was," the attorney asked feigning great concern.
The manager neither looked up nor answered. He simply raised one hand and pointed in the general direction of the plaintiff's table. His hand shook visibly and he pulled it down and grabbed it with his other hand.
"Have the record show that the witness pointed at the plaintiff," the attorney ordered. Then wanting to minimize the damage that this witness was causing he ended his questioning.
Maria Theresa got up from the plaintiff's table and walked over to the witness box. Without speaking she looked at the nervous manager with obvious puzzlement and disdain, the way you might look upon a convicted peeping tom. She drew in a large breath and held it as though she were trying hard to control her contempt. The manager shifted in his chair and looked increasing guilty. He looked up at her as though he were pleading for mercy but could not hold her gaze.
"Your testimony is that this young man is responsible for his condition because he dropped the grapes that he slipped on?"
The manager shrugged and nodded slightly.
"I'm sorry, you'll have to speak up," Maria demanded. "Are you saying that this is all my client's fault."
The nervous manager considered the way the question had been reworded and offered, "Yeah, I guess that is what I am saying."
Maria stared at the witness they way you would stare at a child who had cookie crumbs on his mouth, but denied taking any cookies.
"I just have one question for you," Maria continued, "did the attorneys for HEB ask you to say that."
It was really a lot more complicated than that. The manger had indeed seen Garner drop the grapes. He told the attorneys and they asked him if he would testify to that in court. So they really did ask him to say that. Of course it was true, but it was all getting too complicated and the manager felt his breathing become shallow. He didn't want to have one of those breathing attacks right here in the courtroom. It would be humiliating. So he decide to get it over with as quickly as he could.
"Yes, they did," he said, and hung his head even further.
"Thank you. No more questions," Maria said and strode confidently and defiantly back to the plaintiff's table.
The jury was made up of seven Mexican Americans and five native Texans. The Mexican Americans could relate to Garner because he worked construction and was being destroyed by this large and powerful grocery store. In the course of questioning witnesses from the construction site, Shorty frequently referred to Garner as 'Tacos' to blur his ancestry and make the Mexican Americans even more sympathetic to him. The Texans thought about his ambition, working construction while going to school. And they thought of his heroism, when he pulled the man out of the river. Everybody could see something they liked in Garner and felt self-righteous anger toward the grocery store that took it all away from this man who symbolized everything that could be right in a man.
"When you set the amount of the award," Maria was saying in closing. "You have to be realistic. A million dollars sound like a lot of money. But by the time you take out hospital bills, legal fees and taxes you only have a couple of hundred thousand. That still sounds like a lot of money. But if a man makes twenty five thousand a year, that will only last him eight years. If you consider his continuing medical bills and therapy costs, it will be eight years of subsistence and then poverty. This man had a future. He was going to finish college and start his own construction company. In another eight years he would probably be making a couple of hundred thousand every year for the rest of his life. But he cannot do that now, because of the negligence of the HEB grocery store. To make matters worse, the HEB grocery store tried to blame my client for their negligence. How many times have you been blamed because somebody else did not want to take responsibility for something they have done?" Of course every person carries around stories of the times they have been treated unfairly. And now, this evil grocery store was going to have to pay for all these injustices.
Maria went on to tell the story of her Uncle Julio and how he had lost his lively hood. The emotion came through in her voice as she told how this man that she admired and loved was reduced to poverty by an inadequate settlement. She told the story of how a good man now started every day with a shot of tequila to numb his anger over all that he had lost in his life. A tear came to her eye and the jury felt as one that it was up to them to right these wrongs. The thin pale man at the plaintiff's table would not be victimized by this thoughtless and negligent grocery store. All of their personal angers and frustrations, every injustice they had ever suffered or witnessed went into the jury room with them.
It took less than an hour for the jury to finish its deliberations. They found the HEB grocery store guilty of negligence and awarded Garner $20 million in damages.
Shorty knew that the sum was outrageous and that it would never hold up on appeal. So he met with Garner and Maria and offered a settlement to HEB - three million upfront to cover medical and legal expenses and an annuity of five hundred thousand per year to be paid out to Garner over the next ten years. The present value of the offer was just over seven million dollars, which looked like a bargain to the HEB lawyers. So they agreed to the deal. Garner signed the release papers and had the annuity deposited in monthly installments of just over forty thousand dollars into an account that he had set up for just this purpose.
That evening, Maria came by Garner's apartment. He had asked her to join him for dinner to celebrate their victory. She was nervous and conflicted. She did not know what to wear. Should she wear a professional looking business suit. Or maybe she should wear a tempting flower print Mexican dress. Despite the anxiety, she was greatly looking forward to her date.
When she arrived, the door was ajar. She knocked but there was no answer. She pushed the door slightly open and called his name. Still no answer. Pushing the door the rest of the way she walked in. Sitting on Garner's Lazy Boy recliner was a large bouquet of roses and a hand written note. The note said…
"Maria: I cannot thank you enough for your help in this case. You are an excellent attorney and some day I think you will be a powerful person in San Antonio. I will never forget you. Unfortunately, I could not stay for our dinner date. My attraction for you is too strong, but it would never work out. We come from different worlds and our worlds would only collide. Please accept these roses as a small token of my affection for you. I will not return to San Antonio, but I will think of you wherever I go. Sincerely, Garner."
She picked up the roses and walked out onto the balcony. She looked down at the spot where his car had been parked and threw the roses out into the parking lot.