NOVEMBER 1990

THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT ARCHIVES
Jury awards $2.1 million for loss of leg

Published: November 1990
Source: By: Henry Boyd Hall, STAFF WRITER

© 1990 Landmark Communications, Inc.

NORFOLK --- A woman who lost her right leg after a truck ran her down in 1986 was awarded $2.1 million by a Circuit Court jury Tuesday.

On Monday, Constance King, 33, of Norfolk had rejected a settlement estimated at $580,000 to be paid in a lump sum and additional monthly installments of $1,000, said William D. Breit and John W. Drescher, King's attorneys.

On Tuesday, jurors deliberated for an hour before recommending that she receive a one-time payment of $2.1 million.

"I just want to say one thing," King, who wore a simple dress that exposed her false leg, said when the verdict was read. "I want to thank the jury very, very much."
Judge John W. Winston immediately upheld the verdict.

Palmer S. Rutherford, Jr., who represented the truck driver Edward A. Lamm and Knox Truck Lines Inc., said he might appeal.

Winston's decision to let the jury see a photograph of King's "mangled" right leg was prejudicial, Rutherford said.

"It shifted the focus. It was so gruesome," he said.
Rutherford has 21 days to ask Winston to set aside or reduce the award.
On Sept. 30, 1986, King was standing on a median at Hampton and Admiral Taussig Boulevards near the Norfolk Naval Station.

Lamm, traveling on Taussig, took a tight left turn onto Hampton Boulevard, where King stood waiting to cross the street.

The empty flat-bed trailer of the truck struck King in the back and knocked her to the ground. The trailer's rear wheels crushed King's leg, Rutherford said.

King had three operations, but the leg was amputated just below the knee Oct. 7, 1986, when plastic surgeons decided she had lost too much tissue on the limb.
At the beginning of the trial, Lamm and Knox Truck Lines admitted negligence. Therefore, the only matter for the jury to decide was the amount of money King deserved.

In closing arguments, Breit and Drescher asked jurors to award her $3 million for her injuries and loss of potential future earnings. Even though King hasn't held a job since the ninth grade, her attorneys argued that she is qualified to work as a maid or a cafeteria worker.

Drescher and Breit said they would help her find a financial planner or ask the court to appoint a guardian.

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Awarded: $2,100,000