Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 13, 1995                   TAG: 9506130063
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

I-81 FATALITY CASE SETS VA. LEGAL PRECEDENT

Now the Virginia Supreme Court has upheld the jury's decision and overturned Salem Circuit Judge Roy B. Willett's ruling that set the jury's verdict aside.

The court's decision Friday makes the wrongful-death case of Jennifer Elaine Garst a precedent setter.

``It's the first successful wrongful-death or personal-injury case in Virginia involving allegations of wind forces caused by a speeding tractor-trailer,'' said Jeffrey Krasnow, attorney for the plaintiff.

He said there has been only one other case involving wind forces in Virginia. In that case, a jury awarded judgment in favor of the plaintiff, but the verdict was overturned.

The Garst wrongful-death lawsuit began six years ago.

The Garst family was returning home to Salem from an Alabama horse show when a tractor-trailer on Interstate 81 passed it on the right.

Although the tractor-trailer never touched the large station wagon or the camper it towed, the wind generated by the speeding truck did. Virginia law does not require physical contact between vehicles to bring a wrongful-death or personal-injury claim.

``About the time that the tractor-trailer got to the rear of the camper, I felt the wind force pushing the camper,'' Luther J. Garst Jr., the car's driver, has testified.

The car and camper began to swing, he said. And Garst, who had more than 20 years of experience pulling horse trailers and campers, lost control.

The car hit the median and flipped, killing Garst's daughter, Jennifer Elaine.

About two years after the accident, Jennifer's sister and the administrator of her estate, Cathy Stump, filed suit against John Doe - the unknown driver of the truck.

``The driver didn't stop, presumably he didn't even know what happened,'' said Phillip Anderson, the lawyer representing the insurance company with which Garst had an uninsured-motorist policy.

A jury found in Stump's favor, awarding the estate about $153,000 plus interest since the date of the accident.

But in post-trial motions, Willett set aside the jury's decision.

Because the defense had presented no evidence in the case, Anderson argued that judgment was up to the court, not a jury, to decide.

Willett agreed and found for the defendant.

But the Supreme Court reversed him with a 6-1 decision. Chief Justice Harry Carrico dissented.

Krasnow said the family should receive a check in the next week for ``in excess of $250,000,'' which includes legal expenses and interest accrued since the accident.

Keywords:
FATALITY