Children of mom killed in car crash reach $2.25M settlement

This story originally appeared in the Aug. 8, 2016 issue of NCLW.

The family of a 43-year-old woman who was killed when the driver of a plumbing company truck crossed the center line and hit her car head-on has reached a $2.25 million confidential settlement, attorneys for the woman’s family report.

Gene Riddle of Riddle & Brantley in Goldsboro and David Kirby of Edwards Kirby in Raleigh reported that while the liability portion of the case was straightforward, the damages portion presented unusual problems in that one of the beneficiaries, the woman’s husband, was in the process of getting a divorce from the victim, and another, her adult son, had a record of serious criminal offenses.

The attorneys said that the adult son had been released from jail shortly before his mother’s death, reoffended after her death and was in jail during the settlement negotiations, and is now out of jail again. As part of the settlement process they created a video presentation which included a jailhouse interview with the son, in which he said his mother was the only person who had believed in him throughout his life and that while she had cut off contact with him for a time because of his crimes, at the time of her death she was trying to help him turn his life around.

The victim’s husband renounced his interest in the proceeds of the recovery, leaving the adult son and the victim’s nine-year-old child as the beneficiaries. The case was filed in Wayne County, and the two sides reached the settlement March 28.

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SETTLEMENT REPORT – WRONGFUL DEATH

Amount: $2,250,000

Case name: Confidential

Court: Wayne County Superior Court

Judge: John W. Smith

Date of settlement: March 28, 2016

Attorneys for plaintiff: Gene Riddle of Riddle & Brantley in Goldsboro and David Kirby of Edwards Kirby in Raleigh