ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 21, 1996 TAG: 9606210056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK
A 90-year-old woman, injured when a stack of poster frames toppled onto her while she was Christmas shopping, has been awarded $10,000 by a Roanoke jury.
Robbie Board of Roanoke had said in a lawsuit that employees at Lechter's, a household goods store at Valley View Mall, created an unsafe condition by stacking the posters against a column "so that it posed a risk of collapsing forward and injuring Board."
That's just what happened Dec. 14, when Board entered the store and touched the first few frames in the stack, her lawsuit alleged.
The rest of the frames then toppled forward domino-style, striking Board in the waist and knocking her to the floor, witnesses testified. She suffered a compression fracture of a lower vertebra, according to Paul Beers of Roanoke, who represented Board during a daylong trial Wednesday in Roanoke Circuit Court.
Board's medical bills totalled about $3,800; the rest of the jury's $10,000 award was to compensate her for pain and suffering. Board's lawsuit had asked for $250,000 in damages.
Dale Webb of Roanoke, who represented Lechter's, said that while the store is sorry Board was injured, it maintains that the poster frames were not displayed in an unsafe manner.
LENGTH: Short : 33 linesby CNB