A Charlottesville Circuit Court judge denied a request Tuesday to stall the wrongful death lawsuit against George Huguely. Huguely was convicted of killing his girlfriend, University lacrosse player Yeardley Love, in 2012.
In their $29.45 million wrongful death lawsuit, the Love family alleged Huguely was guilty of both simple negligence as well as willful and wanton conduct.
Matthew Green, the attorney representing Huguely, said when parties file lawsuits such as wrongful death, they can advance multiple theories that are mutually exclusive.
“An example of negligence is a motor vehicle accident. A person might look down at the wrong time and hit someone, but they do not actually intend to harm the person,” Green said. “[The Loves] alleged it was both simple negligence, which in layman's terms is an accident, and willful and wanton conduct, which means there was an intention to harm.”
Attorneys for the Love family asked for a stay in the trial — meaning they wanted to delay the wrongful death trial — due to an ongoing federal lawsuit in Maryland over insurance coverage.
In that insurance coverage case, the court will determine whether the insurance policy held by George's mother will cover him.
Green said if the Maryland court finds Love’s death an accident, the insurance money will satisfy the civil damages which are awarded up to the value of the insurance coverage.
If the Maryland court rules that her death was an intentional act by Huguely, the insurance would not cover the damages. Thus, the Love family would be unable to collect from the insurance money.
“In the Maryland lawsuit, the Loves took a specific legal position about what happened in Yeardley’s bedroom. They pointed to specific facts that Yeardley’s death was unintended on George’s part,” Green said. “According to the statements of their attorneys, Yeardley’s family preferred to have the Maryland case resolve itself first before wrongful death case went forward. It suggests that they would like to know if the insurance money will be available to help satisfy any judgment.”
Huguely, through Green, objected to the motion to extend the stay and wanted to move forward with the wrongful death case.
“We are talking about a March 2017 case, which is almost seven years after Yeardley’s death,” Green said.
The date for the wrongful death trial in Charlottesville is set for March 6, 2017.
The Daily Progress reports Love family attorney Irv Cantor said they will probably file a motion to push the trial date back later than March.
Cantor did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
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