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.