Widow, 92, to Keep Savings in Civil Liability Appeal

A 92-year-old widow initially held financially liable for a nephew’s car accident will be able to keep her life’s savings under a settlement reached today in a closely watched civil liability case.

“I did, I did win,” Luella Wilson told reporters who swarmed to her home after the announcement.

“Any man with common sense would know I didn’t owe that money,” she said, sipping a celebratory shot of Southern Comfort.

Wilson was slapped with a $950,000 judgment after a car driven by her great-nephew plunged off a bridge, leaving one of his passengers, Mark Vince, unable to walk.

Wilson was home in bed the night of the April, 1984, crash but she was found liable for Vince’s injuries under a legal doctrine known as “negligent entrustment.”

Wilson had loaned her great-nephew, Willard Stuart Jr., the money to buy the car. Vince’s lawyers claimed that Wilson was liable because she knew or should have known that Stuart did not have a driver’s license and had a problem with alcohol and drugs.

Wilson said that she had spent $98,000 in legal fees and that the award would clean out the remainder of her savings. Although she amassed a bank account of $600,000 during a long and colorful life, the legal problems left her partly dependent on Meals on Wheels for food.

The Vermont Supreme Court ordered a retrial of the 1987 award. Opening statements were heard today, and one witness had begun testimony in Bennington Superior Court when the attorneys for Vince, Wilson and the dealership that sold the car went behind closed doors. They emerged from chambers shortly after with news of the settlement.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but attorneys for both Wilson and Ace Auto Sales Inc. said the elderly widow will be able to keep her money and her property.

“Mrs. Wilson is going to get everything back, and why shouldn’t she settle under those terms?” said her attorney, Fred Harlow. “I’m ecstatic.”

“It’s over. She has won,” said Michael Madden, Wilson’s live-in caretaker.

Vince, who is paralyzed and whose left leg was amputated as a result of the accident, declined to discuss the settlement.

“I’ve got to be like this for the rest of my life. I’ll never be happy,” he said as he was helped from his wheelchair to a car.

“I can’t explain anything about the settlement. There was an agreement. I just want to get on with my life,” said Vince, now 28. “I’m happy it’s over with.”

Stuart, now 24, is a laborer.

Wilson’s plight drew national media attention and became the focus of a legal debate over how far a civil plaintiff should be able to reach when looking for the proverbial “deep pocket.”