92, She Defeats Liability Claim on Home, Savings

A 92-year-old woman won her legal fight to save her home and life savings Tuesday with a court settlement that effectively overturned a 1987 jury verdict that held her liable for an accident caused by her great-nephew after she loaned him money to buy a car.

Under the 1987 verdict, reached on the first day of a negligence trial, Luella Wilson stood to lose her home in North Bennington and her savings of about $950,000.

But shortly after noon Tuesday, Wilson received a telephone call from her lawyer. “You’ve won, Luella. You can keep your land, and we have won the case,” he was quoted as saying.

None of the parties to the case would disclose details of the settlement. Sitting at her kitchen table, drinking a shot of whiskey, Wilson said she was happy to win.

“I don’t feel very damned good. I can’t walk, but I did win,” she said.

In 1984 Wilson loaned Willard Stuart the money to buy a car, despite his poor driving record and lack of a driver’s license.

Shortly after that, Stuart drove the car off a bridge after drinking beer and whiskey and smoking marijuana with a group of young men. One of his companions, Mark Vince, was in the back seat during the accident and was seriously injured. He later had one leg amputated.

Vince sued Wilson. A jury found her liable in 1987 and ordered her to pay Vince $950,000.

Although refusing to reverse the 1987 decision on appeal, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that a jury should decide if Ace Auto of Bennington and its president and salesman in the deal, Gary Gardner, should share the liability for selling the car to Stuart.

In opening arguments at the trial Tuesday morning, Wilson’s lawyer, Frederick Harlow, told jurors that Vince, not Wilson, must bear the blame for the fact he is mostly paralyzed and has lost a leg.