DATE: Tuesday, October 7, 1997              TAG: 9710070292

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   91 lines

FAMILY SUES DEALER AFTER FATAL CRASH NORFOLK WOMAN DIED AFTER CAR STALLED.

To friends and neighbors, she was ``Ma'' Payton, the kind of woman others admired.

Joycelyn Payton did it all. She fed the homeless. She cared for neighborhood children. And on weekends she enjoyed her family - 10 children, 16 grandchildren, seven brothers and sisters.

When she died in a car crash in March at age 58, nearly 1,000 friends, neighbors and relatives packed the church for her funeral.

``She was the glue that held the family together,'' said one son, Bruce Payton.

Now the Payton family wants justice. Family members say the car in which Joycelyn Payton died was a lemon. Police say the 1994 Geo Metro stalled on Interstate 64, just a few minutes after she and her son took delivery of the used car and drove away from the lot. Seconds after the Metro stalled, two other cars smashed into it, killing Joycelyn Payton.

The family blames the dealership that sold the car: Cavalier Ford on Military Highway in Chesapeake.

``There is no question there was deficient repair, negligent repair, of that car,'' says the family's attorney, Stanley E. Sacks.

Cavalier Ford says it is not responsible for the crash.

``The car was in excellent mechanical condition when it left the lot,'' said Ken Silverman, Cavalier's vice president. ``No one has yet told us, or made any allegations, as to why it stalled.''

The Payton family says it knows why the car stalled, but won't say until it gets its day in court.

The family is suing Cavalier Ford for $12 million, claiming negligence and breach of warranty. The lawsuit was filed last week in Portsmouth Circuit Court.

The family blames Cavalier Ford not only for the defective car, but also for the dealer's insensitivity after the crash. Relatives say the dealer never called the family to offer condolences or help after Joycelyn Payton died.

``It's been six months and we haven't gotten a call or anything from them,'' said a daughter, Donna Payton.

``They had no sympathy for this family whatsoever,'' added Joycelyn's widower, Everett Payton, a 65-year-old retired longshoreman.

But Silverman, Cavalier's vice president, said he's not sure how appropriate it would have been for Cavalier to call the family after the accident. ``And I don't know if that would have changed anything in the lawsuit,'' he added.

The facts of the accident are not in dispute. It happened March 5 on I-64, near the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway interchange. Lorne Payton was driving. His mother was in the front passenger seat.

Lorne Payton, 36, is a security guard at Lafayette Villa Health Center. He had bought the Metro a few days earlier for about $9,000. He didn't take possession immediately, however, because the dealer had to do some engine and body work.

When Lorne picked up the car, his mother was with him. ``It was running fine when I got it,'' he recalled.

Driving home to Norview, the Paytons got onto I-64. They were in the middle lane, going about 55 mph, when the engine suddenly stalled, Lorne Payton said.

``All I could say was, `Oh my God!' I put my blinkers on, and I tried to start it up again. That's the last thing I remember,'' Lorne Payton said.

Police say the Metro was hit twice by other cars on the highway. Joycelyn Payton died at the scene. Lorne Payton suffered facial cuts. Both were wearing seat belts.

Silverman, the Cavalier official, said he has no idea why the car stalled. ``We put it through the standard checks,'' he said. It passed state safety inspection. It was tuned up. Lorne Payton test-drove it a few days earlier and it was fine, he said.

``I have no idea if it was operator error or mechanical error, and nobody has told me,'' Silverman said.

Meanwhile, on Marietta Avenue near Norview High School, Everett Payton is still mourning his wife's death.

She was well-known around town. For more than 10 years, she and her husband fed homeless people at various churches, including St. Andrew's Church of God in Christ and the Way of the Cross Church.

She also cared for neighborhood children in her home, where she ran a modest day-care business.

``She was not only my wife, my girlfriend, my partner, my counselor. She was everything a man could want,'' Everett Payton said.

``They say that behind every good man is a good woman. That's what she was to me. And that's been taken from me and my family. What a loss.''

The Paytons say money is not an issue.

They say they want Cavalier Ford to accept responsibility for the crash that killed Joycelyn Payton.

Said Everett Payton, ``We don't wish nothing like this to happen to nobody else.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color photo]

Joycelyn Payton in 1975. KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC LAWSUIT

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