BY KYM LIEBLER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON -- Warren County commissioners will argue today that a recent $5 million jury award against the county should be reduced or thrown out in favor of a new trial.
An eight-member jury ordered on April 3 that the county pay $5 million to relatives of the Rev. David Hensley and his family because the county failed to install a guardrail that could have prevented the Jan. 22, 1995 accident that killed the family of four.
The Rev. Mr. Hensley, his wife, Sandra, and their children, Alisha and Brian, died after their car skidded on Dayton-Oxford Road in Franklin Township and fell into the Great Miami River.
Parents and siblings of the Rev. Mr. Hensley and his wife won their wrongful-death lawsuit against the county after the jury ruled that the county was 80 percent responsible for the accident because it failed to erect a guardrail along the river bank. The jury also found that the Rev. Mr. Hensley was 20 percent responsible because he lost control of his car.
But Columbus lawyer Steven LaForge, hired by commissioners, said Tuesday the $2 million the jury awarded for the pain and suffering the Hensleys experienced as they drowned is too high.
"The strongest argument is when you look at other courts throughout the county that have heard similar cases, $2 million is excessive for two-and-a-half minutes of pain and suffering," Mr. LaForge said.
Lawyers on both sides of the case will appear before Warren County Common Pleas Judge P. Daniel Fedders this afternoon for a post-verdict hearing.
C. Michael Kilburn, president of the Warren County Commission, called the accident tragic, but he questioned a 1936 law holding counties responsible for installing guardrails along township roads.
He said slashing the award in half, to $2.5 million, would still be high.
"It's not a good use of taxpayer funds, and it (doesn't) set a good precedent for future liability claims," he said.
Mr. LaForge has asked Judge Fedders to reduce the award based on the $228,000 the Hensleys' relatives have already received from life insurance proceeds and to cut in half the $500,000 awarded for pain and suffering.
He also will argue that the award be cut to take into account that the Rev. Mr. Hensley was partly responsible for the wreck.
But in motions filed Tuesday, lawyers representing the Hensleys' relatives asked Judge Fedders to grant the judgment with no reductions. James Ruppert, a Franklin lawyer representing Hensley family members, also will ask Judge Fedders to disregard the fact that the Rev. Mr. Hensley was partly responsible for the accident "since the jury determined that the guardrail would have prevented the deaths."
If Judge Fedders does not reduce the award, Mr. LaForge will request a new trial.
