Other large verdicts of note

A few cases caught our attention, although they didn’t quite meet the criteria we use for our list of top state jury verdicts.

FELA suit in Tennessee

Richard N. Shapiro of Virginia Beach and Sidney Gilreath of Knoxville, Tenn., joined forces to win an $8.6 million verdict in Knoxville Circuit Court for the estate of a CSX railroad brakeman/switchman.
Winston Payne retired in 2002 at age 60 after a 40-year career with the railroad and was diagnosed in 2005 with lung cancer.

He filed suit under the Federal Employer Liability Act alleging that the cancer was caused by exposure to radioactive contamination from enriched uranium and plutonium surface contamination in or near trains on which he worked.

He also alleged that he was exposed to asbestos insulation on diesel locomotives and to the fumes from diesel fuel.

Payne died in February 2010 before the case was tried, and the jury returned its verdict in November. Under FELA’s comparative negligence provisions, the jury found that 26 years of smoking was 62 percent responsible for Payne’s lung cancer, which would reduce the award to $3.2 million.

The estate’s attorneys contend, however, that it is entitled to the full amount because CSX violated a safety statute. Post-trial motions on that issue and defense requests to set aside or modify the verdict are pending.

The case is Estate of Winston Payne v. CSX.

Military contract claim

In a dispute between contractors who provide linguists for the Department of Defense in Iraq and Afghanistan, Fairfax Circuit Judge Lorraine Nordlund awarded $2.86 million to a subcontractor who contended that the prime contractor had not paid its interim indirect costs as required by the contract and federal regulations.

Nordlund rejected the argument of the defendant that it did not have to make the payments until the government had completed its audit of the payment, in part because the defendant controlled some of the information on which the audit is based and had not yet passed it along.

The case is Thomas Computer Solutions LLC v. L-3 Communications Services Inc. Eric S. Crusius, James S. Phillips and Sarah C. Schauerte of Vienna represented the plaintiffs.

I-95 arbitration

Another case resulted in a $2.375 million arbitration award based on injuries to a tractor-trailer driver when his truck hit another rig that the complaint alleged was pulling onto Interstate 95 from the shoulder.

The defendant driver contended that he had not pulled off the road but was rear-ended by the plaintiff.

Plaintiff suffered a mild traumatic brain injury, a broken jaw and a shoulder injury and incurred $574,168 in special damages.

A Spotsylvania County Circuit judge had ruled before the arbitration that CB radio traffic among truckers about a rig pulling onto the highway and an admission by the driver immediately after the wreck were admissible. Steven M. Frei, Robert T. Hall and Charles C. Lacy Sr. of Reston represented the plaintiff.

The case is Guthrie v. Dreams Express Inc.

Death of a Navy man

A case in Norfolk federal court involved the death of a storekeeper seaman in the U.S. Navy during a training exercise in the James River. Senior U.S. District Judge Henry Coke Morgan Jr. found Vulcan Materials Co. was solely liable for a collision between one of eight barges being towed by a tug and a rigid-hulled inflatable craft being used as part of the exercise.

Vulcan Materials contended that the Navy was solely at fault in a case that involved issues of responsibility under the Inland Rules of Navigation, sovereign immunity and the measure of damages, including the choice of law.

Morgan awarded $1.25 million in damages for the sailor’s estate, and the case is on appeal to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The case is In the Matter of Vulcan Materials Co. Daniel Rose of New York and Michael F. Imprevento of Norfolk represented the estate.

—?Alan Cooper