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RALEIGH, NC -- Type of action: Tort; tractor-trailer vehicle collision; wrongful
death
Name of case: Thomas Billings, Administrator of the Estate of Susan Billings v.
Terminal Trucking Company, Inc., et al.
Court/County: Alleghany County
Case no.: 05 CvS 34
Special damages: Funeral expenses, loss of earnings, loss of society and companionship
Verdict/Settlement: Settlement
Date of Settlement: November 19, 2005 and April 18, 2006
Experts: Rolin F. Barrett
Insurer: Travelers Property and Casualty Company of America, The Travelers Indemnity
Company of Illinois, The Hartford Insurance Group, and Hartford Fire Insurance Company
Plaintiff's counsel: W. Thompson Comerford Jr. and Clifford P. Britt of Comerford
& Britt, LLP
Person submitting: W. Thompson Comerford Jr.
Other Useful Information: Plaintiff was the husband of decedent. Decedent was killed
by a tractor trailer while she was traveling on Highway 21, a mountainous and curvy
road. The defendant truck driver, acting in the course and scope of his employment
for Terminal Trucking Company, Inc., lost control of the tractor trailer while driving
downhill in ninth gear. Decedent, traveling with her mother, attempted to pull her
vehicle as far as she could against the side of the mountain. Her sport utility
vehicle was struck by the tractor and trailer, pinning her inside the vehicle. Her
mother managed to escape but Susan Billings was unable to get out of the vehicle.
Shortly thereafter a fire broke out in the engine compartment. Bystanders attempted
to extinguish it, but it continued to reignite and eventually consumed the vehicle
and burned Mrs. Billings to death.
Settlement was complicated by the fact that there was minimal in insurance coverage
available. After two mediations the case settled, the balance being paid from the
trucking company's assets. Mrs. Billings was survived by her husband, the administrator
of her estate, and four children, two of whom were minors and two of whom were adults.
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