AUGUST 24, 2002

THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

JURY AWARDS $60 MILLION TO MAN HURT IN CAR WRECK

Published: August 24, 2002
By: Janie Bryant

© The Virginian-Pilot

PORTSMOUTH -- A jury ordered a delivery company to pay $60 million to a 40-year-old man left with severe brain damage and catastrophic health problems after an August 2000 traffic accident.

JANUARY 30, 1997

THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT ARCHIVES

ACCIDENT VICTIM WINS $17.5 MILLION AWARD BELIEVED TO BE LARGEST EVER BY A JURY IN VIRGINIA

Published: Thursday, January 30, 1997
Section: FRONT, page A1
Source: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER

©1997 Landmark Communications, Inc.

From the start, lawyers suspected that David J. Mraz might win a big jury verdict this week in his personal-injury trial. The only question was how big.

Two mock juries had heard Mraz"s case in a practice trial Jan. 4 and awarded him stunning sums: $20 million and $17.5 million. "He has been through hell," one juror said afterward.

On Wednesday, after a weeklong trial in Portsmouth Circuit Court, Mraz got the real verdict from a real jury, and it was every bit as big as expected: $20 million.

AUGUST 29, 2000

THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT ARCHIVES

BEACH WOMAN GETS $12.4 MILLION

Published: Tuesday, August 29, 2000
Section: Front, page A1
Source: By MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER

© Landmark Communications Inc.

NORFOLK - A preschool teacher whose arm was crushed by a monster truck at a 1998 Virginia Beach show won a $12.4 million settlement Monday from the truck's owner and the show's organizer. It is one of the biggest out-of-court settlements ever in Hampton Roads.

The victim, Joy Kubitza of Virginia Beach, now 29, was a paying passenger in the 4x4 monster truck, called Grave Digger, when it flipped on the Oceanfront beach while doing high-speed twists and turns on October 17, 1998.

The truck was carrying 13 paying passengers. Kubitza was the most seriously hurt.