Articles Posted in Virginia

Here are 5 interesting Virginia jury verdicts in 2015 that you might find interesting:

$13,000 Settlement – A 31-year-old man is driving his car on the highway at a rate of around 60 mph. He approaches an intersection where a woman driving a pickup truck is attempting to make a turn in the middle of the intersection. She starts to travel out into the intersection but stops upon seeing another driver’s car trying to make a left turn in front of her. Contact was unavoidable at that point, and the woman clips the man’s tires. He immediately complains of neck pain and is transported to the hospital via EMS, where doctors diagnose him with soft tissue injuries. He sues both of the involved drivers, claiming that they were negligent in the operation of their vehicles. The defendants contend that plaintiffs injuries were actually from a motorcycle accident that he sustained years ago. Prior to trial, the parties settle for $13,000.

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A lawsuit filed by the mother of a toddler injured at a Virginia hotel has settled for $10.9 million dollars.

Tragic story here. Days prior to his third birthday, a toddler fell through the railing of a second-floor hotel walkway where a railing spindle was missing, suffering permanent brain injuries.

The attorneys’ fees and unpaid medical bills are reported to be about $3.9 million dollars. The rest will be paid to the boy through a payment plan and special trust.

In Funkhouser v. Ford Motor, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld a products liability wrongful death suit against Ford arising from an electrical fire in the Ford Windstar.

The facts in this one are just plain awful. Three-year-old twins were playing in their parents’ 2001 Ford Windstar. The engine was off and the keys were not in the ignition. As a parent, you really do feel pretty safe in that situation with three-year-olds because the cars are made to be kid-proof on that level. A fire erupted in the passenger compartment of the van. One of the twins suffered third-degree burns and died.

Plaintiff filed a wrongful death product liability lawsuit against Ford, contending that Ford did not properly warn consumers about the fire hazard in Windstar vans when they are parked with the engine off and no key in the ignition.

Plaintiff wanted to introduce evidence of seven other similar fires. The point being that since Ford knew of the problem, whatever the cause might be, it should tell consumers. Ford countered that the plaintiff did not prove that the causes of these other fires were substantially similar to the cause of the subject fire.

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You get a big verdict. Defendant’s big bone of contention on appeal is an evidentiary issue. When this happens, and it has happened to me a number of times, you are feeling pretty good about your chances. Particularly when the standard is – as it is for most evidentiary issues – an abuse of discretion.

There were some Virginia lawyers probably feeling the same way. That is until last week when the Virginia high court flipped their $18 million verdict against Exxon.

Plaintiff got a wrongful death verdict against Exxon in a lawsuit involving a man who developed mesothelioma while working on Exxon ships. Suffice to say, the jury was not happy with Exxon, awarding $12 million in compensatory damages, $12.5 million in punitive damages and nearly a half a million in medical damages. The punitive damage award was knocked back to $5 million, still leaving the plaintiff with a nearly $18 million verdict.

A man was awarded $25 million by a Portsmouth, Virginia jury for his claim that he had been raped by three police officers in South Korea.

It is hard to imagine how awful that would be. Who would take $25 million in exchange for that?

I know who. Norfolk lawyer Daniel R. Warman. A person who can still work and “who can see and has all their arms and legs … that gets $25 million is perfectly ridiculous,” Warman told the Virginian-Pilot.