La Plata dropped from bus stop suit

Deadline missed to include town

Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008

Clarence and Gregory Neverson, then 17 and 4, were hit the morning of June 5, 2007, while they were waiting at a school bus stop on Glen Albin Road in La Plata. According to court documents, the mother of the two boys, Bernitha Neverson, is suing Jacqueline Elizabeth Simmons, 30, of King George, Va., who drove a Pontiac Grand Am into the group of children.

Simmons was sentenced to five years in prison on Aug. 22 for leaving the scene of an accident that resulted in serious injury.

Neverson also filed claims against the Charles County Board of Education, the town of La Plata and Simmons’ husband, who owned the Pontiac, according to court documents.

She is asking for about $1.5 million from Simmons, and $500,000 from the board of education, according to court records.

Neverson’s attorney, J. Wyndal Gordon, said his client was suing the town of La Plata for failing to mark the Glen Albin bus stop clearly enough. ‘‘They could put up a bus stop sign, a child at play sign, a caution sign,” Gordon told the court.

However, the plaintiff had not filed a notice of intent to sue the town of La Plata within 180 days of the accident. In court, Gordon said new information came to light after the 180-day period and asked for leave to the town to the suit.

He said a witness told him another child was hit at the bus stop before the June 5 incident, and that the accident had been reported to the town of La Plata with no effect.

‘‘If the town is remiss, it is difficult for me to understand why that failing wouldn’t have been available to the plaintiff within the 180-day period,” said Judge Robert C. Nalley before denying Gordon’s motion for leave to file a claim against the town.

The case is scheduled for trial Oct. 5, 2009.