Couple sues Ky. trucker over 2004 accident

WINFIELD – A Putnam County couple have sued a Kentucky truck driver and his company for injuries the wife sustained in a 2004 auto accident.

Joan and Clifford Cunningham filed the lawsuit Feb. 8 in Putnam Circuit Court.

In the suit, the plaintiffs say that on July 1, 2004, Joan Cunningham was driving on U.S. 60 near the intersection of Dudding Lane in Culloden, Cabell County when Ernest D. Webb of Ashland, Ky., rear-ended her 1997 Pontiac Bonneville.

Webb was driving a 1996 Volvo tractor trailer owned by Dependable Rolloff Inc.

In the accident, Cunningham says she sustained severe and permanent injuries, including a cervical strain which has caused her difficulty and given her pain in the neck and lower back.

In the suit, filed by attorney L. Dante DiTrapano, Cunningham says she now has difficulty in doing simple tasks such as sleeping, climbing stairs and walking without assistance. Also, she says she can't perform everyday household chores without pain and cannot sit for extended periods of time.

Cunningham says she has endured past, present and future pain and suffering; past, present and future medical expenses; intensive physical therapy; loss of income; loss of earning capacity; loss of enjoyment of life; emotional trauma and other injuries.

Her husband sues for the "great and irreparable loss in that he will be deprived for the remainder of his life of the full companionship, consortium and services of his wife which he enjoyed prior to her injury."

The Cunninghams seek compensatory damages, court costs, attorney fees and other relief.

They request a jury trial.

The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Ed Eagloski.

Case number: 06-C-44