Law Journal Says Jamestown Boy To Receive $5.4 Million in Pit Bull Attack Suit
OBSERVER Mayville Bureau
MAYVILLE - The controversy over pit bulldogs continues to simmer across the country and has generated numerous pieces of legislation, lawsuits and massive settlements in cases where the animals have attacked humans, a publication written for lawyers says. An article in a recent issue of the National Law Journal, a weekly newspaper for attorneys, discusses the pit bull issue and, among other things, reveals that a Chautauqua County boy who had his nose ripped off by one of the dogs has received an out-of-court settlement that will net him $5,402,000 over his lifetime. The injured boy was represented by the Jamestown law firm of Burgett & Robbins.
Jamestown Man Awarded $1.6 Million in Crash Case
JAMESTOWN - A Jamestown man who suffered multiple injuries a year ago in a Pennsylvania highway crash has been awarded one of the largest settlements ever agreed to locally. The injured man will get at least $1.6 million, partly in a lump sum. The rest, in monthly payments, will go to him and his wife. The settlement, to be paid by an insurance firm, was with Tank Truck Rentals Inc., which had leased the truck from Chemical Leaseman Truck Lines Inc. The injured man was represented by attorneys Dalton J. Burgett and Dale C. Robbins of Jamestown.
Jury Awards $150,000 In Civil Case
MAYVILLE - A state Supreme Court jury late Thursday afternoon returned a verdict awarding $150,000 to a Jamestown man as a result of a traffic accident. The jurors made the award for his injuries and permanent disability to one leg and also gave $5,166 to his wife, for loss of his services. The verdict was against the driver of the car which struck the man while he was riding a moped on East Virginia Boulevard in Jamestown, and against her husband, owner of the car. The verdict came following a three-day trial before acting state Supreme Court Justice Willard W. Cass Jr. and after about 90 minutes of deliberations. The jury consisted of two men and four women. The injured man and his wife were represented by Dalton J. Burgett of the firm of Burgett and Robbins of Jamestown.
$8.5 Million Settlement Reached for Boat Mishap
By MANLEY J. ANDERSON
MAYVILLE -Final documents involving a settlement of more than $8.5 million and believed to be the largest single such financial agreement ever reached in Chautauqua County Supreme Court have been filed with the county clerk's office. The filings were made Wednesday in a court case stemming from a two-boat accident Aug. 25, 1985, on Chautauqua Lake near Long Point State Park. The settlement was approved by Willard W. Cass Jr., Chautauqua County surrogate serving as an acting Supreme Court justice in the case. It provides for periodic payments to the injured individual who was critically hurt. The Jamestown law firm of Burgett & Robbins, with Dalton J. Burgett of counsel, represented the injured woman and her parents. Dale C. Robbins of the firm said three other cases were settled at the same time.
Man injured in accident settles suit against firm
MAYVILLE - A Conewango man injured in an auto accident two years ago has settled his state Supreme Court damage suit against an Illinois trucking company for $500,000. According to attorney Dalton Burgett of Jamestown, the man was injured when his pickup truck was struck by a semi-truck and trailer at the intersection of Route 62 and the Waterboro Hill Road in the Town of Ellington.. Mr. Burgett said his client suffered permanent damage to a knee which prevented his return to his job as a postal worker. Mr. Burgett said. Mr. Burgett is a partner in the Jamestown law firm of Burgett & Robbins.Settlement valued at $5 million
A steeplejack from Erie, Pa., age 25, will receive a multi-million dollar settlement for injuries suffered when he fell 57 feet from the steeple of the church of St. Mary of the Angels in Olean, according to an agreement reached Wednesday. The settlement, which will provide him with a lump sum of about $1,950,000 and monthly payments for the rest of his life, resolves his civil suit in U.S. District court in Buffalo against the church and the L.C. Whitford Co. of Wellsville, a general contractor for repairs to the church. The injured man suffered multiple fractures and spinal cord injury which left him partially paralyzed. He is unable to work and must use crutches to walk. His attorneys, Burgett & Robbins of Jamestown, estimated the total value of his settlement at more than $5 million. U.S. Magistrate Leslie G. Foschio had granted the injured man summary judgment on the liability portion of his claim, since his fall resulted from inadequate safety provisions. The settlement Wednesday was reached as trial was under way on his claim for damages.
Eleven years after accident, McKean Co. jury awards $394,000
SMETHPORT - A McKean County jury on Thursday awarded $394,000 to the estate of a Kane man killed in a 1984 auto accident. After a four-day trial on the civil suit, a 12-member jury made the award to the estate of the decedent after hearing evidence about the accident on a curve on James City Hill on Route 66. The decedent, who was 28 at the time of the accident, was driving south when his vehicle collided with a pickup truck driven by Elwyn Hunter of Little Marsh, which was towing a fifth-wheel camper. The jury found that the Hunter vehicle crossed over the center line, striking the deceased's vehicle and causing the collision which resulted in his death. "The only person who would receive any of the award is the decedent's son, Brandon," said attorney Mary Speedy Hajdu, who assisted attorney Dalton Burgett of Jamestown, N.Y., in representing the Anderson estate.
Manufacturer Death Settles Claim Made After Husband's Death - A local woman has been awarded a $5.3 million settlement as the result of an industrial accident leading to her husband's death. Dalton J. Burgett and Mary Speedy Hajdu of the Jamestown law firm of Burgett & Robbins represented the Nunn family in the case.
Local Girl Is Awarded $963,000 Lawsuit
Followed Car Crash
By Manley J. Anderson
MAYVILLE - A Sinclairville girl has received a $963,000 settlement in an auto accident with the case resolved shortly before jury selection was to begin. The action was brought on behalf of an 8 year old, who was a passenger in car driven by her mother, when it was struck at Route 380 and the Centralia Road in town of Stockton by a car operated by Richard Pratt of Jamestown. The case was heard by state Supreme Court Justice Joseph Gerace who ruled previously that the defendant's negligence in not complying with a stop sign at the intersection was the cause of the accident. The girl's mother and her sister, also were injured but not severely and also received settlements, according to attorney Kenneth M. Lasker of the Jamestown law firm of Burgett and Robbins who represented the plaintiffs.
County resolves claim that also includes two local fire departments
OBSERVER Mayville Bureau MAYVILLE - The Chautauqua Count Legislature Wednesday night agreed to pay the estates of a Stockton mother and son killed in an accident a total of $218,000. As part of settling that same lawsuit, insurance carriers for the Murray Hose Co. No. 4 of Dunkirk and the Portland Volunteer Fire Dept. will be paying out in excess of $3 million over a period of years. Money will go principally to the estates of the deceased mother and son with other sums to the guardians of two surviving but badly injured girls. The tragedy occurred on the Hartfield-Stockton Road. Ended Gala Days The fatal mishap led eventually to the end of the annual Firemen's Gala Days in Stockton. It was then, police and the plaintiffs contended, in a beer tent operated by the two fire companies, that John Carlson had consumed several beers prior to the mishap that July afternoon. Police said Carlson was under the influence of alcohol when his car, while attempting to pass an auto, ran head-on into the car driven by another in which the decedent, her son and two daughters were passengers. Carlson pleaded guilty to a number of counts of vehicular assault in criminal court before the Supreme Court damage action was filed. The county was made part of the suit, County Atty. Steven Abdella noted, "under the doctrine of joint and several liability" in which a defendant is responsible not only for his own shares of the plaintiff's economic loses, but also for shares of other defendants who cannot pay. Carlson, Mr. Abdella noted, carried only minimum insurance. The lawmakers, shortly after okaying the payment, filed a motion with the State Legislature asking that it act quickly on legislation now before it to reduce the county's exposure under the share liability law. Under the proposed settlement, Carlson's insurance company will pay its policy limit of $120,000; another insurer will pay its limit of $110,000 and while a third insurer will pay $20,000. The fire departments' insurance companies will make payments in excess of $3 million over a number of years. The county, being self-insured, will make its payment from its Liability and Casualty Fund, the county attorney said.
County jury awards over $1 million in damages to Sinclairville native
OBSERVER Mayville Bureau MAYVILLE - The largest single damage award ever levied by a jury to a single plaintiff in Chautauqua County history - over $1 million - went to a former Sinclairviile woman here Friday. The young lady, a native of Sinclairville, who now lives in Lakewood, received the judgment from a state Supreme Court jury of five women and one man late Friday afternoon. State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Gerace presided at the trial. The injured woman, now 20, was 16 when she was injured in a traffic accident on the Kortright Road in the town of Busti about 6 p.m. She suffered a severe head injury in the crash which has resulted in permanent impairment, the court was told. Miss Austin's attorney, Dalton J. Burgett of the Jamestown law firm of Burgett and Robbins, presented evidence showing that she incurred medical expenses in excess of $146,000. The accident, testimony disclosed, resulted from a head-on collision between vehicles. They awarded the injured woman a total of $1,035,000 to cover her medical expenses, $12,000 for past lost earnings, $100,000 for past pain and suffering and $776,000 for future medical expenses, lost earnings, pain and suffering.
Jury orders payment to crash victim
A State Supreme court jury in Mayville ordered the Town of Portland and insurance carriers for a dead Westfield girl to split the $450,000 in payments to another Westfield student seriously injured in a fatal car crash three years ago, court officials said Wednesday. In a ruling that will mean long-term payments totaling about $1.2 million to Stacey A. Holland, the jury found the town 40 percent legally responsible for the crash that took the life of 16 year-old Holly Lynn Raines. After a 12-day trial before Justice Joseph Gerace, the jury found that Holly, the driver in the accident, was 60 percent legally responsible for the fatal crash. The Chautauqua County Sheriff's Department said Holly lost control of her northbound car on Prospect Station Road near the Finley Road cutoff and struck a utility pole. Holly, then a junior at Westfield Academy and Central School was pronounced dead at the scene. Ms. Holland, now a college student, suffered a broken leg but got out of the car before it was engulfed in flames. Jamestown attorney Dalton J. Burgett said that before the trial, insurance carriers for the Raines family and the town agreed on a settlement to Ms. Holland with a current value of $450,000. He said she will get periodic payments over several decades that her lawyers say will total about $1.2 million. The jury was asked only to decide the amount of legal liability of Holly, who was speeding when she lost control of her car, and the town, which had not maintained a speed limit sign on the dangerous curve in the road where the fatal accident occurred, Burgett said. Under the jury verdict, the Raines family insurance carriers will have to pay Ms. Holland $270,000 and the town will have to pay her $180,000. The jury also ordered the town to pay Holly's family at least $12,884 for alleged improper maintenance of the dangerous roadway. Court officials said that jury awards to teen-age crash victims generally are smaller than if the victim had been a married adult with a family. Ralph A. Boniello III, the Niagara Falls attorney for Holly's estate, said he is considering an appeal of the jury's award to Ms. Holland and a possible appeal if the Town of Portland's insurance carriers dispute the amount the jury awarded the Raines family Court officials said attorneys for the town's insurance carriers also are considering appeals.
Jury Deliberations Begin In Sawyer Trial
BUFFALO - A jury of 10 men and two women began deliberating the fate of Robert Earl Sawyer, 37, formerly of the town of Mina, at 9:55 a.m. today, after having the law explained to them by State Supreme Court Justice Frederick M. Marshall. After deliberating for an hour and 15 minutes, the jurors returned at 11:10 a.m. to ask that certain testimony be read to them again and that certain exhibits, including an enlarged photo of Hogan's Hut, the murder scene, be shown once more. For the past eight days, the jurors have heard evidence that Sawyer, a one-time carpet layer, shot to death Jeanne Anne Humm, 19, a nursing student and part-time clerk at Hogan's Hut in Stow. Sawyer was convicted in October 1978 for the same two counts of second degree murder and first degree robbery in a trial in which he defended himself. Last year, the State Court of Appeals ruled he should not have done that and the Appellate Division ordered the case moved to Buffalo because of publicity about the case in Chautauqua County. The trial portion of the case, which consumed about 5½ days, was brought to close Wednesday afternoon in a brilliant, dramatic summation by Special Prosecutor Dalton Burgett, a native of Dunkirk. In his closing speech, Mr. Burgett asked the jurors to use their common sense to link together the elements of direct testimony, physical evidence and circumstantial evidence to convict Sawyer of slaying Miss Humm. Likening the crime to a wagon wheel, Mr. Burgett told the jury "the outside of the rim of this wheel is the murder of Jeanne Anne Humm. The hub is Robert Earl Sawyer. Each of the spokes leading from the rim - the fact of Miss Humm's murder - is a piece of evidence pointing straight at Robert Earl Sawyer." Then, like a gifted wheelwright, Mr. Burgett began fitting those spokes in place. He pointed out that not all of the evidence against Sawyer is circumstantial. In one case, he noted that Miss Humm's body was found lying face down on the floor of an aisle at the back of the store which was only 33 inches wide. He pointed out that both wounds, only millimeters apart, had entered the back of her head left of center. One bullet exited through her left eye and the other above her right eye, according to medical testimony. "This says to me we have a left-handed shooter," Mr. Burgett said, "and Mr. Saywer is a left-handed shooter." Mr. Burgett went on to demolish point after point of doubt raised by the defense as an alternative theory of the crime - that is, that some acquaintance of Sawyer had taken his gun, had killed Miss Humm, and then had stashed the evidence in a secret cubbyhole in Sawyer's barn. He dismissed this as being "beyond belief". He noted that the patch which had been placed over the entrance to the cubbyhole had been neatly cut and fitted out of barnboards and nailed in place with antique square-cut nails which were located in a can inside the Sawyer house.
Sawyer Sentenced to 25-To-Life
BUFFALO - Robert Earl Sawyer was sentenced this morning in State Supreme Court to the maximum prison term of 25 years to life for the murder of 19-year-old Jeanne Ann Humm. The murder occurred during a robbery at Hogan's Hut, a general store in Stow where Miss Humm worked as a part-time clerk. "I have nothing to say," commented Sawyer, who sat calmly next to his attorney, J. Kevin Laumer, before sentencing. State Supreme Court Justice Frederick M. Marshall said the proof in the case was "overwhelming and that it was regrettable that the taxpayers had to pay for another trial." "I've seen a lot of cases in my day, and this is one of the most despicable. A beautiful girl struck down in the prime of her life. It really calls for an alternative form of punishment," Marshall said. For each of the second-degree murder counts - intent to cause murder and murder in the course of a robbery - Sawyer received a sentence of imprisonment for 25 years to life. For each of the first-degree robbery counts, he received 12 ½ to 25 years, the maximum sentence. The sentences are to be served concurrently. Wearing leg shackles and handcuffs, Sawyer was escorted out of the courtroom and placed in the custody of Chautauqua County Sheriff's Department officials. Four of those officials, including Lt. Jerome Ernewein and Undersheriff John Sirianno, the lead investigators for the case, where in Buffalo to take Sawyer to the Alden Correctional Facilty for processing. Sawyer is then to be taken to the Attica Correctional Facility. Sawyer has already served six years.
|
The above is not legal advice. That can only come from a qualified attorney who is familiar with all the facts and circumstances of a particular, specific case and the relevant law. See Terms of Use. |