 From North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, August, 18,
1997
By Ertel
Berry
The biggest verdict in state history, a $347
million award to Meineke franchise owners who claimed
the parent company had sticky fingers, tops the 1997
Lawyers Weekly Large Verdicts and Settlements survey.
Nineteen counties and all three federal districts
are represented in the rankings, which cover cases
reported to Lawyers Weekly since August 22 of last
year.
The Meineke class action award, now up to $400
million with subsequent adjustments, sets the tone for
the rest of this year's record-breaking list, which
includes 50 verdicts and settlements over $700,000.
That's a sharp rebound from the 1996 survey, where
only 34 awards exceeded $700,000 -- and only 45 topped
$500,000. That downturn broke a five-year string of
increases.
This year saw a return to form. Among the
benchmarks set: 37 awards of $1 million-plus. That
compares to 33 recoveries of $1 million or more in
1995, and only 25 last year.
The verdict by a U.S. Western District jury in Broussard
v. Meineke Discount Muffler Shops, Inc.
resulted from claims that the parent company skimmed
millions from an advertising fund. Tom Ashcraft of
Charlotte was local counsel for the plaintiffs.
Lawyers say the huge award sent a message that
franchisors have fiduciary duties to their
franchisees. Not surprisingly, the case made headlines
all over the country.
So did a $25 million verdict in favor of a Wake
County five-year-old who lost most of her intestines
after sitting on a swimming pool drain cover.
The judgment against the cover's manufacturer in Lakey
v. Sta-Rite Industries, Inc. was the largest
personal injury award ever in North Carolina. The
total settlement with all the defendants in Lakey
came to $30.9 million.
Stricter laws have been passed to prevent similar
pool accidents in the future, according to the
plaintiffs' attorneys, John Edwards and David Kirby of
Raleigh. Their law firm also had five other entries on
the 1997 survey.
Perhaps the most unusual case on the roundup was a
$31.5 million wrongful death verdict against a
Richmond County corporation for a double-murder
committed by one of its officers. The apparent motive:
life insurance proceeds to keep the company afloat.
Ric Buckner of Rockingham represented the plaintiff
in that action, Dunlap v. Gymbags, Inc.
However, a case combining illicit sex and big bucks
was generating the most media buzz at press time. Two
weeks ago, an Alamance County jury awarded $1 million
for alienation of affections in Hutelmyer v. Cox.
In that case, an ex-wife claimed her marriage was
ruined by her husband's secretary. After the verdict,
the plaintiff's lawyer, James Walker of Gibsonville,
spent days fielding calls from kiss-and-tell tabloid
shows, 15 talk radio programs, as well as the BBC and
German television.
Walker downplayed the hoopla in an interview with
Lawyers Weekly.
"I've been involved in three of these cases
this year," he said. "They've always been
around. I am probably seeing a few more of them these
days, at least in Alamance county."
Almost lost in the media frenzy over Falls v.
Noah, a Forsyth County case. Winston-Salem
attorney Ed Parker represented the plaintiff there.
Variety
Those two alienation awards underscore the variety
in this year's survey, which includes two awards each
in the areas of products liability and abuse of
process, as well as a large securities class action
verdict.
Like last year, the top category was auto
negligence, with 17 cases, or 34 percent of the
recoveries reported. Second was medical malpractice
with 12 awards, or 24 percent.
Auto negligence. A $4.9 million settlement
in a Pitt County case, Stewart v. BeBout,
was the largest recovery in an auto case this year.
The plaintiff in Stewart, who was already
disabled with a multiple personality disorder,
sustained severe brain injuries in a crash after the
defendants' truck ran a red light.
Greenville attorneys Joseph and Sharron Edwards
represented the plaintiff in the negligence suit. A.
Charles Ellis of Greenville handled the guardianship
issues.
Right behind the Stewart case was a $4.3
million confidential settlement out of Gaston County.
In that case, a 46-year-old father suffered permanent
brain damage from a truck collision on I-85. Charlotte
attorneys Gary Hemric and Richard Fennell handled the
lawsuit.
Medical malpractice. A Hoke County jury
handed down the largest medmal verdict on the survey
in Carter v. Hucks-Follis and Pinehurst Surgical
Clinic, P.A. The lawsuit arose out of negligent
back surgery on a 54-year-old man. Bone fragments were
driven into his spinal cord, injuring it severely.
The plaintiff in Carter recovered $8 million
for his injuries. The estate of his wife, who died
three years after his surgery, recovered $2 million
for loss of consortium. The plaintiffs were
represented by Joe McLeod and William Aycock Jr. of
Fayetteville, whose firm also handled three other
cases on the survey.
A delayed blood transfusion produced the second
largest medical malpractice verdict. In Brown v.
Bowen, a Nash County jury awarded $6 million to
a six-year-old girl who suffered permanent brain
damage and blindness after being treated for an
epidural hematoma at an emergency room.
The hematoma was drained but the child wasn't given
blood for several hours, according to Tarboro lawyers
Jimmie Keel and Susan O'Malley,
who represented the plaintiffs.
Abuse of process. Two juries handed down
multimillion dollar awards for abuse of process last
May.
In Williamson v. City of Asheboro, a
Randolph County panel gave $6.6 million to a
contractor who claimed city officials arrested him on
trumped-up theft charges to gain the upper hand in a
construction dispute.
Officials said the arrest was based on reasonable
suspicions that they were being cheated. But the
plaintiff successfully argued the prosecution was a
ploy to terminate his contract with the city. Raleigh
attorney David Fox handled the case.
A few weeks later, a Guilford jury awarded more
than $4 million to a Greensboro CPA who was hit with
criminal conversion charges after he quit his job as
the defendant's comptroller.
That case was Estridge v. Housecalls
Healthcare Group, Inc.
The ostensible grounds for the warrant in Estridge,
which was later dismissed: the plaintiff didn't
immediately return his pager and cell phone after
posting a resignation letter.
The plaintiff, represented by Robert Cone of
Greensboro, convinced the jury that the true motive
for the firing was revenge against a potential
whistleblower.
The plaintiff's resignation letter made direct
allusions to a double-billing problem with the
Medicaid program, according to Cone.
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