$647,000 verdict affirmed in slip-and-fall case from W.D. Va.

Last week, in the case of Richardson v. Boddie-Noell Enterprises, Inc., the Fourth Circuit in a per curiam opinion for the panel of Judges Williams and Shedd and Senior Judge Hamilton affirmed the judgment where the plaintiff won a $647,000 verdict for a slip-and-fall case at a Hardee's restaurant in Louisa, Virginia. The case was tried before Judge Moon in the Charlottesville jury division of the W.D. Va. One of the issues on appeal was a constitutional challenge to the plaintiff's use of peremptory strikes, which were all used to strike men from the jury, and on this issue the appeals court noted that the only evidence was statistical, that only men were struck, and that the plaintiff was able to articulate at trial non-discriminatory reasons for the strikes.