Personal Injury Law

Widow of Austin IRS Worker Files Personal Injury Suit

By Michael

A personal injury lawsuit was filed by the widow of an Internal Revenue Service worker who was killed when a man crashed his plane into an office building in Austin, Texas.

The lawsuit claims Sheryl Mann Stack, widow of the plane’s pilot Andrew Joseph Stack III, should have warned people that her husband might be dangerous and ?owed a duty to exercise reasonable care to avoid foreseeable risk of injury to others.?

Valerie Hunter, wife of Vernon Hunter who was killed in the plane crash, filed the seven-page wrongful death personal injury suit on Feb. 22 in the Travis County Courthouse in Texas.

Joseph Stack, a software engineer, flew his Piper Cherokee PA28 single-engine plane into the side of an IRS office in Austin, Texas, killing himself and Hunter while also injuring 13 other people. Stack left behind a lengthy typed manifesto that was posted on his company Web site before he crashed the plane. The note described several years of anguish and contempt against the U.S. government and taxation within the country.

Stack was facing financial woes and set his house on fire before flying his plane into the IRS building, according to the Austin American Statesman.

The suit listed negligence under the causes of actions section against both Joseph and Sheryl Stack. It claims Joseph was flying in violation of FAA regulations by flying too low in an area with obstacles.

It also alleges that Sheryl Stack was negligent since she took her daughter and stayed at a hotel out of fear the night before Stack crashed the plane. The suit claims that action meant she had a responsibility to inform others that her husband could be dangerous.

Valerie Hunter?s injury attorney Dan Ross told the American-Statesman that the Hunter family wants to know if insurance proceeds given to the Stack family could be considered part of awarded damages in the lawsuit.

The suit requested a jury trial to be held and damages to be awarded. Within an affidavit filed along with the wrongful death lawsuit, Valerie Hunter requested that results of an autopsy performed on 67-year-old Vernon Hunter remain sealed from the public.

?This is an extremely difficult time for me and my family and the release of the autopsy report to the public will cause me and my family severe and irreparable emotional distress,? Valerie Hunter wrote in the signed affidavit. ?Once the report is released, I will not have an adequate remedy at law as the damage will be done.?

Full post as published by The Injury Blog on February 26, 2010 (boomark / email).