Car wreck suit filed

MORGANTOWN - A Wheeling woman is suing two individuals and 10 John Does over a 2003 automobile accident in Morgantown.

Lynnette McFarland filed the suit in Monongalia Circuit Court against Mark Holloway and Kasandra Kasten.

The John Does are "individuals, firms, corporations and/or entities currently unknown to the plaintiff who may have served alcohol to the defendant, Mark Holloway, on or about Nov. 1, 2003, and may therefore bear some liability herein," the complaint says.

McFarland says Holloway crashed his 1985 Porsche into the back of the 1998 Ford Taurus in which she was a passenger on Monongahela Boulevard.

"As a direct and proximate result of the negligent, careless and/or reckless conduct of the defendant… the plaintiff… sustained severe and disabling personal injuries, was forced to seek medical treatment and incur medical expenses, has and will in the future incur pain and suffering, mental anguish, aggravation, inconvenience, the loss of enjoyment of life, loss of the ability to function and past and future medical and other expenses," the complaint says.

She also claims to be entitled to punitive damages because Holloway exhibited "willful, wanton and reckless indifference."

Kasten is described as the owner of the Porsche being driven by Holloway and should have known of his propensity to "operate vehicles in an unsafe manner and/or the propensity of the defendant… to operate vehicles while intoxicated."

Michael Simon of Weirton law firm Frankovitch, Anetakis, Colantinio and Simon is representing McFarland. Simon previously made headlines when state Attorney General Darrell McGraw appointed he and partner M. Eric Frankovitch to Special Assistant Attorneys General for the purpose of investigating two companies on behalf of the state. The two attorneys were already investigating the companies for clients in their private practice.

When Leviton and Cooper Manufacturing challenged the appointment, Frankovitch and Simon eventually lost their Special Assistant Attorneys General status.

Monongalia Circuit Court case number 06-C-514