Virginia Lawyers Weekly

An Amherst County jury returned a $750,000 verdict last week for a woman who suffered multiple injuries in a 2005 head-on collision that fatally injured the other driver. Plaintiff’s lawyer Peter A. Katt of Roanoke said the case is significant because the defendant mounted a vigorous defense based on the “dead man’s statute.”

Virginia’s dead man’s statute, Virginia Code § 8.01-397, prohibits certain testimony against a decedent’s estate unless the testimony is corroborated.

In this case, the plaintiff was permitted to testify (through a deposition transcript) that she observed the other car coming over onto her side of the road and tried to slow down.

There was no other evidence of how the accident happened. The other driver died without giving any clear explanation of what occurred. There were no witnesses. Because the accident happened in a downpour, there were no skid marks on the road. The plaintiff denied any recall of the accident during the police investigation.

Judge J. Michael Gamble ruled that the plaintiff’s testimony was sufficiently corroborated by the location of the vehicles, the road alignment, damage to the vehicles, and a gouge mark on the shoulder of the road.

The plaintiff’s serious injuries were uncontested. Her car was knocked down a 12-foot embankment, crushing her legs. The wreck broke her ankle, hip, pelvis, and neck. She spent more than a year in a hospital and a nursing home. Her medical bills totaled $145,000.

Katt said that the parties agreed to a high-low arrangement that will result in a $100,000 recovery, the limits of the defendant’s State Farm policy.

Close this Window Bookmark and Share This Page

Save to Browser Favorites / Bookmarks

Print RSS Feed Ask backflip blinklist BlogBookmark Bloglines BlogMarks Blogsvine BuddyMarks BUMPzee! CiteULike co.mments

Connotea del.icio.us Digg diigo DotNetKicks DropJack dzone Facebook Fark Faves Feed Me Links Friendsite folkd.com

Furl Google Hugg Jeqq Kaboodle kirtsy linkaGoGo linkedin LinksMarker Ma.gnolia Mister Wong Mixx MySpace

MyWeb Netvouz Newsvine oneview OnlyWire PlugIM Propeller Reddit Rojo Segnalo Shoutwire Simpy Slashdot

Sphere Sphinn Spurl Squidoo StumbleUpon Technorati ThisNext Tumblr Twitter Webride Windows Live Yahoo!

Email This to a Friend

Copy HTML: 

 If you like this then please subscribe to the RSS Feed.

More »