Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 9, 1994 TAG: 9408090092
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
The payments, in addition to a lump payment of $20,000, were part of a settlement reached Monday in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Candice Steele. Candice suffered severe dog-bite injuries to her face and head in 1992, when a Samoyed attacked her as she played in her front yard.
Under an agreement reached in Roanoke Circuit Court, the dog's owner, Howard Thomas Henegar, denied liability but nonetheless agreed to the conditions of the settlement.
The settlement requires Henegar to pay $20,000 - $16,000 of which will go to Candice's attorney, Richard Lawrence - and to purchase an annuity to provide for $250 monthly payments to Candice, beginning on her 18th birthday and continuing the rest of her life.
The lawsuit had claimed that an earlier incident, in which Henegar's dog attacked a small child, should have put him on notice of the dog's viciousness. Despite that, the dog was running free at the time Candice was attacked in her yard on Courtney Avenue.
The dog, named Bo, was ordered destroyed by a Roanoke judge after authorities confirmed that it had mauled a 3-year-old boy more than a year before Candice was attacked. A lawsuit involving that case also was settled out of court.
Henegar was fined $30 for allowing the dog to run loose and failing to have city tags for the animal.
Court papers filed Monday state that Candice "is believed to have made good recovery from the injuries she sustained."
by CNB