Three dozen people hurt – some maimed and disabled for life – after a deck collapsed in the Sandbridge section of Virginia Beach in 2005 are being forced to divide just $375,000, The Virginian-Pilot reported Monday.
The incident provides a harsh reminder of how important it is to have complete health insurance – and how dangerous an uninspected rental property can be for your unwitting guests.
The case is pending before Virginia Beach Circuit Court Judge William R. O’Brien, who will decide who gets how much after the October 2005 collapse at 2576 Sandfiddler Road.
The 36 people hurt have amassed $556,000 in medical bills, the newspaper reported. In addition, they have suffered a total of $70,000 in lost wages.
The injuries happened at a six-bedroom benchfront rental home owned by Earle and Patricia Mulrane. The home had been rented out by newlyweds Amanda Hall and Kristopher Hoke.
A number of wedding guests were on the third-floor deck when it tore away from the house. Some people fell onto the deck below, others into the pool, and yet others onto the first-floor patio.
The deck had merely been nailed to the side of the house, city inspectors subsequently discovered, when it should have been bolted to the home’s frame.
The nails rusted and eventually became useless.
The home’s insurer will pay $300,000 – the limit of the Mulranes’ coverage – and the Mulranes will pay just $75,000 despite selling the home earlier this year for $900,000, twice what they paid for it.
My sympathy goes out to these people. I hope these innocent victims are made whole, and that their pain serves to teach others the dangers that lurk in poorly-built rental properties.
About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is a law firm which focuses on injury and accident law and we have experience handling slip, trip, and fall cases.Check out this case result involving a woman who slipped and was injured at a restaurant. Our primary office in based in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA). Our lawyers hold licenses in NC, SC, WV, KY and DC. We are ready to talk to you by phone right now—we provide free initial confidential injury case consultations, so call us toll free at 1-800-752-0042. Our injury attorneys also host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube . Furthermore, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard and Norfolk Injuryboard as a pro bono public information service.
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Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
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