THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 3, 1995 TAG: 9506030326
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
TYPE: METRO BRIEFS
DATELINE: PLYMOUTH LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
On Friday, the North Carolina Supreme Court in Raleigh technically upheld a lower court decision that gave $2.25 million to a Plymouth woman who was injured in a 1986 automobile collision that killed her father - a Washington County deputy sheriff.
The accident on the old Albemarle Sound bridge caused serious head injuries and brain damage to Regina Annette Peal, who was 19 at the time and a passenger in her father's car. Deputy Sheriff James Walter Peal was driving.
In a 1991 Washington County court action, Regina Peal sought damages against Cianbro-Williams Brothers construction company. The company was then building a new bridge across Albemarle Sound.
A vehicle driven by a then-employee of the construction company was in the other vehicle in the accident.
Cianbro-Williams appealed the 1991 decision and the case went to the State Supreme Court this year.
Friday's decision was unusual since Justice Robert Orr disqualified himself because he was the judge who handed down an earlier Appeals Court decision upholding the initial $2.25-million verdict.
Orr has since been elected to the state Supreme Court.
Without Orr voting, the high court handed down a 3-3 verdict Friday.
L. P. Hornthal Jr., an Elizabeth City attorney whose firm won the original decision for Regina Peal, said the split high court ruling had the effect of affirming the Appeals Court action.
Hornthal said accrued interest has now increased the original Peal award to ``about $3.3 million.'' by CNB