ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 17, 1995                   TAG: 9511170068
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Medium

FAMILY OF WOMAN VICTIM WINS BENEFIT

The family of a woman who was killed while helping a highway accident victim has been awarded benefits under a rarely used legal doctrine that dates to 13th century England.

The ruling this week by the state Court of Appeals in Richmond marked the first time that a Virginia court has acted on such a claim, said Michael A. Kernbach, an attorney for the family of Joye Compton-Waldrop.

Compton-Waldrop, 29, was returning home from work as a pizza shop manager on Aug. 31, 1991, when she came upon a crash on the Norfolk-Virginia Beach Expressway.

George W. Starr, an off-duty auxiliary police officer, had arrived moments earlier and began helping victims of the accident. He told Compton-Waldrop and several other passers-by to pull over and assist him.

Starr got Compton-Waldrop to help him move an injured man who was lying in the road. While the two were still walking on the highway, a speeding car struck them, killing both.

Afterward, Compton-Waldrop's parents and her daughter, now 5 years old, filed a workers' compensation claim contending Compton-Waldrop had been deputized at the accident scene as an emergency city employee.

The city and the Workers' Compensation Commission denied the claim.

But a three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled Tuesday that the family was entitled to a death benefit.

Under the 13th century doctrine of posse comitatus, Compton-Waldrop could not have refused to help Starr without being guilty of a misdemeanor, Judge Sam W. Coleman III wrote.

The city attorney's office declined to comment on the ruling.

Kernbach said Starr's family was paid a $50,500 death benefit.

The families of both victims have filed lawsuits against Sean Armao, the 19-year-old Navy man who ran into Starr and Compton-Waldrop. Armao, who had been drinking at an Oceana Naval Air Station bar before the crash, was convicted of manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Kernbach said Compton-Waldrop won a cash settlement for an undisclosed amount in a lawsuit against the Navy and that Starr's family has a lawsuit against the Navy pending.

Keywords:
FATALITY 

Memo: NOTE: SHorter version ran in Metro edition.
by CNB