The Trial, as seen
by the local daily
June
27, 1993 - 5-year-old injured by pool drain
RALEIGH
-- A 5-year-old Raleigh girl was in critical condition Saturday after
an accident in which a portion of her lower intestine was sucked out
of her body by a swimming pool drain. The accident
occurred Thursday -- the same day that state lawmakers unanimously approved
a bill reducing requirements for community swimming pools...
The
accident is the second known case of suction from a pool drain causing
such injuries to a child in the Triangle.
In 1991, a 3-year-old Durham girl required two operations after sitting
on an uncovered wading pool drain at the Hollow Rock Racquet & Swim
Club in Durham. There
were at least a half-dozen similar accidents reported across the United
States in the early 1980s. In all of those cases, the grate covering
a pool drain had been dislodged or was missing...
Last
June, the state Health Services Commission adopted tough new construction
and health standards for all pools built for other than single-family
use after May 1, 1991. But after an outcry from
pool operators and some county health departments over the cost of compliance,
many of the standards were rescinded.
June
29, 1993 - Drain that injured girl lacked cover
RALEIGH
-- A safety cover was off the wading-pool drain that critically injured
a 5-year-old girl last week, Wake County inspectors said Monday. The
dome-like plastic cover was in place at Medfield Area Recreation Club
on June 11 when a county inspector checked out the wading pool and allowed
it to open for the summer, records show.
But
the cover was off Thursday evening, when Valerie Lakey visited the pool
with her family, a
county health official said. The strong suction pulled Valerie into
the 6-inch-wide drain, pulling out part of her intestines. She remained
in critical condition Monday at Wake Medical Center.
"How
it got off, we don't know," said Keith Glover, director of environmental
health for the Wake Health Department. "We
know that kids play with those things. You could take a dime or penny
and unscrew it."
The
cover was supposed to be held down by four screws...Even
if the covers are screwed down, Glover said, they are relatively easy
to remove...In fact, nearly all cases where children have been
injured by pool drains involved covers that had been removed or had
broken away. In Durham in 1991, a 3-year-old girl needed two operations
after sitting on an uncovered drain at Hollow Rock Racquet & Swim
Club...
"I
don't believe this has anything to do with product design -- it's an
issue of maintenance, an issue of a missing cover and the child sitting
down on it," said Ken Giles, a spokesman for the U.S. Consumer
Product Safety Commission..."Somehow
these covers are being taken off or broken off or bent and aren't re-secured.
What happens is the child sits down on the drain and the tremendous
force of the pump literally eviscerates them."
The
National Spa and Pool Institute, along with the Consumer Product Safety
Commission, issued a list of precautions for pool owners and managers
in 1982. It states that covers must be checked daily to see whether
they are in good repair and to make sure they cannot be removed without
tools. Pools where covers
are missing or damaged should be closed, the institute says...
"The
only way the public is guaranteed to be safe is if the pools out there
are maintained by knowledgeable people," said Mike Donathan, manager
of Leisure Concepts, a pool builder. "Unfortunately,
some of these pools are looked after by college kids or other people
who don't have the hydraulic experience to know an uncovered drain is
a trap."
June
30, 1993 - 15 Wake wading pools closed over drain covers
Wake
County health officials closed 15 wading pools Tuesday as they conducted
countywide inspections triggered by the serious injuries a 5-year-old
suffered when she sat on an uncovered drain.
Inspectors
have found that drains at nearly a fourth of the 65 pools checked lacked
proper protective covers...the county began requiring the anti-vortex
covers because they pull water from the side rather than from the top
downward, as other drain covers do....But owners
and managers told inspectors that playing children frequently break
the plastic covers, Glover said. Rather than leave a jagged piece of
plastic that could cut feet, the pool operators simply discarded the
anti-vortex device, leaving only the usual grate to cover the drain,
he said.
July
2, 1993 - Children blamed for removing pool drain cover
RALEIGH
-- Children pulled the cover off a wading pool drain just minutes before
a 5-year-old girl sat on it last week and was severely injured, attorneys
for pool and its insurer said Thursday...parents who were poolside when
the accident occurred about 7 p.m. told attorneys that children playing
in the pool pulled the cover off minutes before the girl sat on it and
had her lower intestine sucked out, said Katherine White, an attorney
representing the recreation association and Burlington Insurance Co.
"It happened pretty much all at once," White said.
October
2, 1993 - Pool accident prompts new safety rules
...Among
other things, health department officials
want pool owners to install anti-vortex covers on drains that cannot
be removed without tools. The covers would prevent drains
from creating a powerful vacuum if someone sat on the opening. The
proposed rules also would require pool owners to inspect drains and
sign safety checklists each day.
"We're
not trying to punish anybody," said Environmental Health Supervisor
Dee Worden, who helped draft the regulations. "We just want people
to know what they're doing."
January
19, 1994 - Pool victim's parents file suit over drain
RALEIGH
-- The parents of a 6-year-old girl whose intestines were sucked out
of her body last summer by a wading pool drain have filed a lawsuit
against Wake County and the manufacturers of the drain cover. David
and Sandy Lakey filed the lawsuit in Wake Superior Court on behalf of
their daughter, Valerie, whose gastrointestinal functions were so damaged
in the incident June 24 that she is fed through a tube that drips nutrients
into her stomach while she sleeps.
Also
named in the suit was the Medfield Area Recreation Club, which owns
the pool in which Valerie was injured. But the Lakeys on Friday settled
out of court for $500,000 with Medfield. The county and the drain manufacturer,
Sta-Rite Industries of Delavan, Wis., both appear ready to take their
chances in a civil trial in Wake Superior Court.
"It's
a regrettable, horrible accident," said Michael Ferrell, attorney
for Wake County. "But I don't think the county has any liability
here." Ferrell said he doubts there will be an out-of-court settlement
with the Lakeys...
The
lawsuit contends that Wake County health officials were negligent when
they allowed the pool to open despite Medfield's failure to secure the
drain cover so that children could not remove it. The manufacturer was
negligent, according to the lawsuit, because it knew the drain covers
could be dangerous unless they were properly installed and maintained.
In addition, the lawsuit contends, written warnings about the dangers
of improper installation were not prominently displayed on the drain
covers...
The
child was rushed to the hospital, but not before she lost 80 percent
of her small intestine and 50 percent of her large intestine. She also
had a colostomy. Kirby said the Lakeys have accrued $175,000 in medical
bills, most covered by insurance so far. Each month, however, Valerie
incurs additional expenses of $10,000 to $12,000 for nightly feedings,
part-time nursing assistance and constant monitoring. "Just
doing the math, you're looking in the order of $8 million to $10 million
in future medical bills,"
Kirby said, noting that Valerie likely will always require such extensive
medical care.
He
said Valerie is unable to eat any food, and instead gets her nutrients
from a tube that feeds directly into her stomach and an intravenous
drip into her arm. She is constantly monitored for proper fluid balance.
"She'll be hooked up to tubes at night for the rest of her life,"
Kirby said.
April
24, 1994 - The cost of pool safety
North
Carolina's top health official...said he will ask the legislature later
this month for authority to require pool operators to make modifications
-- and shut down those who don't...Such
a law could force changes at about 150 wading pools across the state
-- less than two dozen of them in the Triangle -- and some
operators are complaining about the potential expense.
Although
one pool builder estimated the cost at $1,000, Raleigh swim club owner
John Candler said the work could cost far more. "It will cost a
small-business person like myself tens of thousands of dollars and we
don't have it," Candler said.
Since
May 1993, the state has required two drains in new wading pools. But
about 150 older wading pools have only one drain. If the drain cover
comes loose, tremendous suction from water flowing through the drain
pipe can cause serious injury.
Three
children have been hurt in such accidents in North Carolina and at least
half a dozen similar incidents have been reported across the United
States since the early 1980s. In every case the drain cover was missing
altogether, but experts say most of those injuries could be prevented
by adding a second drain to reduce suction.
"I
honestly don't understand why something hasn't been done to require
retrofitting the older ones," said Boyce Cox, president of Carolina
Aquatech Pools in Sanford and a pool builder since 1956.
May
21, 1994 - Temporary rules target pool drains
June
15, 1994 - Stiffer rules for pools get nod
July
8, 1994 - Law will close wading pools with single drains
December
4, 1996 - Parents of girl hurt in pool go to trial
...The
case could rewrite the record books in Wake County if the jury agrees
to the monetary demand from Valerie's parents - between $35 million
and $40 million to cover her medical expenses, pain and suffering and
the difficulties of the child's life to come.
In
the wading pool at Medfield Area Recreation Club in Cary, the
drain's vortex trapped Valerie and held her with such force that Lakey
and three other adults could not pull her away. Someone finally shut
off the pump, and when Lakey lifted Valerie off the drain, the pool
was filled with blood.
David
and Sandy Lakey, in their daughter's name, are suing Sta-Rite Industries,
a Delavan, Wis., company that makes pool equipment. They
claim the company failed to put sufficient warnings on its drain covers
even though the company knew an uncovered drain could be lethal.
Last
year, the Medfield club settled with the Lakeys for $500,000. Wake County,
which certified the pool, settled as well, although the amount was not
disclosed. Sta-Rite is the only party in court now...
Kirby
said Sta-Rite knew that pool drains needed covers to break up the possibly
deadly force of a vortex and that the covers needed warnings. A California
child was killed in a 1974 accident similar to Valerie's; in 1981, a
boy in Henderson was killed the same way.
Kirby
said the Medfield club had purchased a drain cover that did not require
screws, a proven fail-safe. Shortly before Valerie got in the wading
pool, some children had popped the cover off the drain. Kirby said Sta-Rite
should have searched out distributors and buyers of the snap-on covers
and warned them to get covers with screws.
But
Tricia Kerner, who with Gary Parsons is representing Sta-Rite, said
the company did everything possible to tell pool operators to install
drain covers correctly. The cover for the Medfield pool drain did not
have a warning stamped on it, but Kerner said it did have holes for
screws. Sta-Rite, Kerner said, is not negligent. The club is the culprit
for not taking greater care to ensure its equipment was in working order.
The county repeatedly warned pool managers and staff workers to make
sure that drain covers are secured, she said.
"Nobody
disputes that this was a tragedy," Kerner said. "Nobody disputes
that this wading pool was not a safe place on that day. What we dispute
is the warning the pool got. Why didn't Medfield use that knowledge?"
December
5, 1996 - Witnesses detail pool incident
RALEIGH
- An N.C. State professor and three other witnesses tearfully described
the pool drain vortex that pulled out most of a child's intestines,
as testimony began Wednesday in a civil trial over the 1993 accident...
The
plastic cover, about the size and shape of a Frisbee, breaks up the
force of the drain's suction. The maker, Sta-Rite Industries of Delavan,
Wis., now stamps warnings on the covers and requires them to be screwed
into the drain frames. But in 1987, when the drain cover in the Medfield
wading pool was made, the covers bore no warnings, and the covers had
only plastic prongs to be snapped into place.
Valerie's
parents, David and Sandy Lakey, contend that Sta-Rite knew of the lethal
dangers of missing covers: Two children, including one in Henderson,
died when they were caught on uncovered pool drains. The Lakeys said
the company had a responsibility to warn buyers of even its old products
that the covers had to be secured.
Sta-Rite
says the negligence is not with its product but with Medfield, which
should have been more vigilant about the safety of the pool equipment...Lifeguards
Debbie Jeffries and Benton Oaks, who also saw the accident, testified
that if they had known such a danger existed, they would have made sure
the cover was screwed down on the drain.
December
6, 1996 - Drain cover didn't have warning label
RALEIGH
- Sta-Rite Industries' chief engineer
testified Thursday that the company did not put warnings on its pool
drain covers until late 1987 even though it had information before then
that the suction of uncovered pool drains had killed and injured children.
But
Gary Brooks, the engineer, said he personally did not know about previous
accidents involving the drain covers. Otherwise, he said, he would have
put out warnings of them...
Sta-Rite
Industries bought the company that made the pool drain covers in 1984
- 10 years after a California child was killed on an uncovered drain
and three years after a Henderson, N.C., boy was seriously injured.
After the 1974 death, an engineer tested the force of the vortex of
an open pool drain and found that even a strong, aware adult could be
trapped and could drown. The
Lakeys claim Sta-Rite knew all that, yet it did not move to put warnings
on the drain covers until late 1987. The drain cover in the Medfield
wading pool was made in February 1987.
Sta-Rite's
lawyers argue that it was Medfield, and not their product, that was
at fault. They say pool managers had long been instructed to affix drain
covers firmly, and the company is not liable for mistakes made at the
pool.
December
11, 1996 - Company papers reveal 13 accidents like Cary girl's
RALEIGH
- Under pressure from lawyers for a Cary girl
injured on an open swimming pool drain in 1993, the drain-cover maker
revealed that it knew of at least 13 similar accidents nationwide -
far more than it has previously acknowledged. The
girl's lawyers immediately rewrote their claim against Sta-Rite Industries
of Delavan, Wis. On Tuesday, they accused the company of "willful
and wanton negligence," asking for punitive damages on top of the
millions of dollars already demanded...
The
Lakeys have asked for $35 million to $40 million. They argue that Sta-Rite
knew of the dangers of pool-drain covers that are not affixed with screws.
The cover in the Medfield wading pool snapped
on and could be pulled off.
The
company said it knew about two accidents involving open pool drains,
including one involving a Henderson, N.C., boy in 1981. But Sta-Rite
did not put warnings on the drain covers until mid-1987. The Medfield
cover was made in February 1987.
Last
week, the Lakeys' lawyers asked Sta-Rite to provide company documents
on any suction-entrapment accident, even
if it did not involve a drain cover. John Edwards and
David Kirby said the documents show that the company knew about the
overall dangers its products posed.
Sta-Rite's
Raleigh lawyers, Tricia Kerner and Gary Parsons, argued that they had
never been asked for such documents before, and such a request in the
middle of a trial was a burden. Superior Court Judge Robert Farmer told
them to get the papers.
They
arrived Monday. On Tuesday morning, Edwards
and Kirby told Farmer that before 1987, Sta-Rite knew of eight other
cases of suction entrapment, most of them children receiving injuries
similar to Valerie's. Between 1987 and 1993, another five people were
injured or killed by suction entrapment, including a Durham girl who
suffered an intestinal injury in 1991.
If
Farmer allows the jury to learn about these other cases, Edwards and
Kirby likely will argue that Sta-Rite did nothing to make its products
safer, even as more people were hurt. The
company wants to keep the jury from seeing those documents and will
argue that the extra cases did not involve pool-drain covers and thus
are irrelevant to the Lakeys' claim.
December
12, 1996 - More pool drain injuries aired before jury
RALEIGH
- The jury in the liability case against a maker of swimming pool drain
covers heard Wednesday about more than a dozen cases of youngsters enduring
injury and even dying when they were caught on open drains.
The
information could help the case of David and Sandy Lakey, whose daughter
Valerie was seriously hurt June 24, 1993, on an open pool drain at Medfield
Area Recreation Club in Cary.
Ten
women and two men have been chosen to consider the Lakeys' claim that
Sta-Rite Industries of Delavan, Wis., knew the drain covers it made
before mid-1987 were faulty enough to case injury and death. The
Medfield drain cover was made in February 1987. The Lakeys have asked
for between $35 million and $40 million to care for their daughter,
now 8, who lost most of her intestines in the accident and requires
constant care.
The
jury already knew that Sta-Rite was aware of two previous accidents.
But Wednesday, the jury found out about another 14 accidents - cases
not revealed until the company handed over documents to the Lakeys'
lawyers this week...Edwards implied that Sta-Rite deliberately
hid that information. Sta-Rite's lawyers said those data were not requested
until last week. The company had not been asked for accident data involving
models of drain covers other than the one used at Medfield in 1993.
December
14, 1996 - Child hurt in drain accident talks to court
The
suction pulled out most of her intestines. Three
years of surgeries, hospital stays, consultations with specialists and
round-the-clock care have brought her to where she can go to school
every day and even compete on the Medfield swimming team. But
she must get her nutrition intravenously for 12 to 14 hours a night.
She runs a constant risk of infection, which could easily become life-threatening,
and she likely will need a liver transplant.
David
and Sandy Lakey sued on their daughter's behalf. Medfield and Wake County
have settled claims with the Lakeys. In court is Sta-Rite Industries,
a pool equipment manufacturer in Delavan, Wis., and a subsidiary of
the utility Wisconsin Gas Co.
The
Lakeys contend that even though Sta-Rite had more than a dozen complaints
of injuries caused by broken or missing pool-drain covers, the
company did not issue warnings or make its products safer until mid-1987.
The Medfield pool's drain cover was made in February 1987.
Sta-Rite
argues that the fault for Valerie's injuries lies with Medfield employees
who should have known that the snap-on drain covers needed to be screwed
down.
December
17, 1996 - 2 lawyers make magazine's top 8 list
Raleigh-A
national legal publication has named Raleigh lawyers John Edwards and
David Kirby as among the eight best in the country. Lawyers Weekly USA
announced the list Monday and praised Edwards and Kirby for "tenacious
lawyering and nice-guy professionalism that has resulted in at least
$14 million a year in verdicts and settlements" in the four years
of their partnership.
January
6, 1997 - Final stages of pool drain trial to begin
At
issue in the Lakey case is whether Sta-Rite, a Delavan, Wis., pool equipment
manufacturer, sufficiently warned users of a certain model of drain
cover that the device had to be screwed down, not just snapped onto
a fitting...
Officials
for Sta-Rite, who testified the week before Christmas, said those injuries
and deaths occurred primarily in hot tubs, not swimming pools. The drain
covers in those cases, the officials said, were made by a company that
Sta-Rite acquired in 1984. Sta-Rite's Raleigh lawyers, Tricia Kerner
and Gary Parsons, told the jury that Medfield employees knew better
than to leave the drain cover without a secure fastening and that any
liability rests with the club.
January
10, 1997 - Defense argues pool staff knew to screw down drain covers
...Parsons,
who defended Sta-Rite with his law partner Patricia Kerner, told the
10 women and two men on the jury that Medfield's personnel knew that
all pool drain covers had to be screwed down to be secure. A staff member
went to a training session and took notes to remind himself to check
the fastening of the drain covers, Parsons said. County regulations
and state law also required that drain covers be "secured."
In
fact, Parsons reminded the jury, the drain cover in the Medfield wading
pool had been screwed into the frame at least three times in the past.
"The
knowledge was there," he said. "The knowledge was in Medfield's
control."
Parsons
minimized the importance of the other suction-entrapment accidents.
The company evaluated those cases and put warnings on the covers as
soon as it believed it had enough evidence to warrant them, Parsons
said. "We're
trying this case, not those cases," he said. "If we had to
try all those cases, we'd be here next Christmas."
January
11, 1997 - Lawyer plays to packed house
...The
crowd came to watch John Edwards, a celebrated attorney, who last year
was named one of the nation's eight best attorneys in the publication
Lawyers Weekly USA.
Edwards
is arguing this time that a large corporation should be held responsible
for a faulty product and pay $42 million for negligence. What they heard
was a man tortured by the recent loss
of his son plead for justice on behalf of a little girl
who nearly died in a freak accident and will suffer for it all of her
days.
"This
is it. This is her day in court," Edwards told the Superior Court
jury, which begins deliberations Monday. "What you do in this courtroom
will last a lifetime."
The
Lakeys retained Edwards and his partner David Kirby, who argued that
the pool-drain cover was faulty because it was designed only to snap
into a frame, rather than to be affixed with screws.
Edwards
and Kirby also argued that Sta-Rite had information on dozens of cases
of suction entrapment - 13 involving pool-drain covers - and did nothing
until late 1987, when it started stamping the drain covers with warnings.
The
cover in the Medfield wading pool was made in February 1987.
Sta-Rite,
a subsidiary of the utility Wisconsin Gas Co., hired Raleigh lawyers
Gary Parsons and Patricia Kerner to argue that Medfield pool workers
were to blame for Valerie's accident because they knew that pool-drain
covers should have been screwed into place.
They
also said the company acted as soon as it could to make its products
safer.
Parsons
finished his closing argument Friday morning, then Edwards
stood to speak. It was his first closing since his son Wade, 16, was
killed in a traffic accident April 4. Edwards' teenage
daughter, Kate, sat in the front row.
For
90 minutes, Edwards led the jurors through the evidence, showing them
how he figured the law had to be applied and telling them to consider
the lifetime of care Valerie will need.
Periodically,
he stopped and asked, "Am I making sense?" or "Y'all
understand what I'm saying?" The jurors always nodded.
On
a large posterboard, Edwards added up the dollars for Valerie's past
and future medical bills, plus her physical and mental suffering. The
total Edwards said was necessary: $42 million.
Finally,
Edwards put down his pen and faced the jury. His voice, already soft,
dropped even lower in pitch and volume. Everyone in the room leaned
in to listen.
"There
was a wonderful, wonderful thing written this past spring by someone
who was writing about a tragedy that occurred," Edwards said. "It
involved the death of a young boy who should not have died. "What
he wrote was this: 'We have to gather around this family not because
we understand what they're going through but because they have to know
we share their pain.' " Edwards paused, as he struggled for words.
"Their
loss is our loss," he said. "Their child is our child. The
responsibility we have toward our children. ..."
Edwards
looked over his shoulder and spotted his daughter. He opened his mouth
and for a moment, no words came out. He turned to the jury again: "That
responsibility is a most awesome responsibility."
When
Edwards finished, the people in Courtroom 10A let out a breath. Judge
Robert Farmer called for a break. The lawyers filed out with that I-just-saw-Elvis
look in their eyes.
Kate
Edwards jumped up, ran to her father and hugged him.
January
14, 1997 - Record $25 million awarded in drain case
RALEIGH
- A Wake County jury gave a 9-year-old girl the largest damage award
in state history Monday, telling a Wisconsin company to pay $25 million
to Valerie Lakey, who was eviscerated on an open swimming pool drain
in 1993.
The
10 women and two men on the Superior Court panel deliberated for less
than three hours before finding Sta-Rite Industries negligent in the
accident at Cary's Medfield Area Recreation Club...David and Sandy Lakey,
Valerie's parents, hugged each other and their lawyers when the jury
returned its verdict. "The
facts were on our side, and I think the jury recognized that,"
said David Lakey.
All
the lawyers declined to comment until after the jury decides the question
of punitive damages. The jury will not
be bound by a new law capping punitive damages because Lakey vs. Sta-Rite
was filed before Jan. 1, 1996.
Before
Monday's verdict, the biggest injury judgments in North Carolina were
for $15 million each - a 1988 wrongful death case in Cumberland County
and a 1991 negligence case in Hertford County involving a nursing-home
patient who died after receiving the wrong drug.
The
jury awarded David and Sandy Lakey $4.2 million for Valerie's past and
future treatment until she is 18. Then the panel awarded Valerie $20.8
million for her care when she becomes an adult. The Lakeys
asked for $42 million, but were satisfied with the award. "We're
just really glad there was a jury that recognized what we recognized
-that Valerie's needs are going to be great," David Lakey said...Though
she can go to school and play outside, she must be home by 7 every night
so she can be hooked up to intravenous nutrition through a tube in her
upper chest for 12 to 14 hours. She also has a gastrointestinal tube
for medication.
January 15, 1997 -
Pool firm's cash to end drain case, Payment decision skirts new penalties
RALEIGH
- A Wisconsin company will pay what appears to be the largest product-liability
judgment in the history of the swimming pool industry when it writes
a $25 million check by the end of this month to Valerie Lakey, who was
eviscerated in a 1993 accident.
A Wake
County jury awarded that sum - the biggest injury judgment ever in North
Carolina - to Valerie, a Raleigh third-grader, and her parents Monday
afternoon. After consulting with its European
insurers, Sta-Rite Industries decided to end the case by paying the
judgment in cash. The
unusual resolution in court Tuesday let the Lakeys avoid years of appeals
and let Sta-Rite avoid the prospect of punitive damages, which the jurors
were scheduled to consider. The Lakeys also have settled with three
other parties for $5.9 million.
"We're
very pleased," said David Lakey, Valerie's father. "We feel
that this will be enough to help take care of Valerie"...
The
jury returned the $25 million verdict in less than three hours.
Juror
Wanda Presnell of Raleigh said Tuesday that the panel of 10 women and
two men discussed the evidence fully but when considering the law, the
case quickly tipped in favor of the Lakeys. "I
was pretty headstrong that we take care of that little girl," said
Presnell. "I hope that this will make a difference, that something
like this will never happen to another child."
The
Lakeys sued Sta-Rite, Medfield, Wake County and Haworth Co., which made
the circulation pump in the Medfield pool, in January 1994. Three of
the parties settled out of court - Medfield for $500,000, Wake County
for $2.5 million and Haworth for $2.9 million.
In
a statement Tuesday, Sta-Rite's president, James Donnelly, expressed
sympathy for Valerie and her parents but insisted that if Medfield personnel
had used the cover properly, Valerie would be healthy now.
"Sta-Rite
was not responsible for what happened," he said.
Donnelly
also complained that the company was not allowed to present the jury
with important evidence. Raleigh lawyer Gary Parsons, who with his partner
Patricia Kerner represented Sta-Rite, said several items were excluded
that he thinks could have helped. "Each
individual item, you can't say what the effect would be," Parsons
said. "Cumulatively, though, we think it would have been important."
Zurich
Insurance Co., the Swiss carrier for Sta-Rite, will pay "the vast
majority" of the settlement, said company spokesman Dennis Ruis,
although he would not define "vast majority." Sta-Rite itself
will have to pay the balance...
Sta-Rite
spokesman Dennis Ruis said the company has never paid a judgment of
this size. Other children who have been injured on open pool drains
have sued Sta-Rite, but the company had always settled out of court,
sometimes for as little as several thousand dollars.
John
Edwards, the Raleigh lawyer who with David Kirby represented the Lakeys,
said Sta-Rite's last settlement offer before the trial began in November
was $1.5 million.
The
$25 million deal struck Tuesday also departs from custom in civil cases
because the Lakeys will get the exact amount the jury awarded them.
The settlement is subject to federal taxes.
Neil
Vidmar, a Duke University law professor who studies liability cases,
said that contrary to popular understanding, people who win a lot of
money in court rarely end up banking it. A defendant often offers a
smaller amount in return for dropping the appeal, Vidmar said, and a
plaintiff often accepts. A trial judge also can unilaterally decide
that the jury made a mistake and reduce the award. An appeals court
may throw out the whole award, too.
Lawyers'
fees in civil cases vary, but Vidmar said they average about 30 percent
of the jury verdict. Edwards and Kirby would not disclose their fee.
January
19, 1997 - Pool
drain-maker pays $25 million
...After
consulting with its European insurers, Sta-Rite Industries of Wisconsin
decided to end the case Tuesday. The company plans to write the $25
million check by the end of the month. The
unusual resolution in court let the Lakeys avoid years of appeals and
let Sta-Rite avoid the prospect of punitive damages, which the jurors
were scheduled to consider.
May
22, 1997 - Girl adapts to life since drain accident, verdict
...Four
months after a Wake County jury gave the Raleigh family the record $25
million judgment, life has achieved a certain normalcy. "We've
become more relaxed, now that we don't have the specter of the trial,"
Sandy Lakey said Wednesday. "It was a big part of our lives for
a long time. We're glad it's over."
As
Valerie tells the nosy, the money goes toward her care. After months
of hospitalizations, operations and specialists, she is hooked up for
12 to 14 hours every night to an intravenous feeding system. She faces
the possibility of an organ transplant. During the trial, Valerie suffered
abdominal pain that stumped her doctors. After the trial, the Lakeys
took Valerie to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where
doctors said her gallbladder had to come out. The
surgery was performed in March, and her mother says Valerie looks and
feels better. "Even her teacher comments on it," Sandy Lakey
said.
The
jury verdict, Lakey said, has allowed her to hire private nurses...In
the first weeks after the verdict, Sandy Lakey said, strangers called
their home or stopped the family in grocery stores to offer encouragement.
"Life's pretty much resumed a normal pace," she said. "We're
plugging along, and Valerie's feeling better."
May
26, 1997 - Like 'The Candidate.' he's building a case for his campaign
...When
Edwards attended the Democrats' recent Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner
in Raleigh, he had to introduce himself to most of the party regulars.
But a year from now, Edwards hopes he will be his party's nominee for
the U.S. Senate, preparing to take on Republican Sen. Lauch Faircloth.
Edwards,
who will turn 44 next month, is an intriguing political newcomer who
seems to have the ability and deep pockets to become a political player,
as well as some liabilities that could cause him to crash and burn...Edwards
has the thinnest party credentials. But he is also the candidate who
seems most likely to run...
Edwards
strikes a populist tone, which is not surprising for someone who has
spent much of his career suing corporations on behalf of injured people...Practicing
law in Raleigh, Edwards and his partner David Kirby in December were
rated among the eight best lawyers in the country by Lawyers Weekly
USA. Edwards has made a fortune, and he is likely to use some of it
to help finance his campaign. He also probably will benefit from significant
contributions from trial lawyers. But his background also will provide
his opponents with a juicy target. Personal injury lawyers are only
slightly more popular than newspaper reporters.
Edwards
says that he doesn't think standing up for average people is a political
liability, and that he will be ready for any such attacks. "I absolutely
believe that what I've been doing for the last 22 years is perfect preparation
for going to Washington and advocating for the people,'' he said..."I'm
proud of what I have done,'' Edwards said. "I am more than happy
to have Valerie Lakey and Joe Blaney, whose wife was killed by a drunk
driver a year ago - any of these folks - stand up and speak on my behalf,
which I know they will. Whatever issue
they raise about that, I intend to take it head-on.
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