2008.10.14
Judge reduces $350,000 jury award against Blacksburg
A Montgomery County judge has ordered that a $350,000 jury award against the town of Blacksburg stemming from a fatal car crash be reduced.
Sharon Knight, a Blacksburg resident, had filed a civil lawsuit against the town and the director of the third annual Greater Blacksburg Triathlon, held in 2000, claiming they were negligent in failing to warn passing motorists of the race course.
Triathlon participant Gary Wayne Taylor, a 30-year-old sports promoter from Lynchburg, died midway through the competition after his bicycle crashed into Knight’s car.
Knight told a jury that she sought counseling 18 months after the crash for nightmares and other trauma and expenses related to the crash and asked for $750,000 in damages.
The jury found in January that the town, which sponsored the race, failed to provide personnel or signage to warn passing motorists that they were entering a race course and awarded Knight $350,000.
In a written ruling dated Oct. 10, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Ray Grubbs reduced that award to $50,000. Grubbs denied the town’s motion to set aside the jury’s verdict.
Knight’s physcial injuries were minor and her mental and emotional trauma were resolved within six months without interfering with her ability to work, Grubbs wrote. Therefore, “the court is forced to conclude that the jury’s verdict is so significantly out of proportion to her injury as to suggest it is unfair and a product of sympathy and prejudice in favor of Ms. Knight.”
"While the accident was tragic, I do believe that Judge Grubbs was correct in his determination that the amount of the original verdict was excessive," Town Attorney Larry Spencer wrote in an e-mail.
The 8-year-old case will likely continue, however. Knight's attorney, Thomas DeBusk, said Tuesday that his client will appeal Grubb's ruling.
“This sort of decision really undermines the public’s faith in the system,” DeBusk said. “If you’re going to submit to the jury, how can you turn around and second guess them?”
DeBusk said Knight's appeal will be based upon a state law that says a judge may not overrule a jury simply because the judge disagrees with the jury's finding.
It's the jury's job to place a dollar value on Knight's suffering, DeBusk said. Assessing that value is inherently subjective, and Grubbs may not under the law replace the jury's subjective judgement with his own.
"That's exactly what happened," DeBusk said.
In 2002, another jury found that the town was negligent in organizing the race and awarded $500,000 in damages to Taylor's family.
-- Tonia Moxley
