Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 18, 1995 TAG: 9503200044
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
James L. Chittum had maintained during a four-day trial that working for the railroad as a laborer caused him to damage a skin graft that had been taken from his heel in connection with an earlier injury.
The railroad was negligent, attorney Byron Kloeppel argued, because it required Chittum to work in a roadway material yard that had an uneven surface and required him to step over railroad spikes.
Kloeppel reminded the jury of a doctor's testimony that Chittum "was at an increased risk when he was required to work on uneven surfaces." Because of the railroad's negligence, he said, Chittum tore open the skin graft in 1989 and no longer can perform his job.
Chittum had asked for $634,000 in total lost wages, plus an unspecified amount for pain and suffering. Although the verdict form did not explain the decision, jurors had been instructed earlier that if they found Chittum was partly to blame for his injury, they could limit the amount of damages accordingly.
Leslie Hagie, a Roanoke lawyer who represented the railroad, argued that Chittum was at fault because he had not properly cared for the skin graft.
Hagie also maintained that at the time of Chittum's injury, he was working as a painter and was not exposed to the conditions he claimed were unsafe in the roadway material yard.
After hearing four days of testimony in Roanoke Circuit Court, the jury deliberated several hours before reaching the verdict late Friday afternoon.
by CNB