The insurer for the Massachusetts transportation company whose employee allegedly struck and killed seven members of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club and injured three others on Route 2 in Randolph last year has reached a settlement with the victims.
In two terse documents that lacked explanatory background, Judge Leo. T. Sorokin of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on Oct. 30 issued a stipulation of dismissal in the case of Pilgrim Insurance Co. v. Westfield Transport, Inc. et al, and also an order that the lawsuit “be dismissed with prejudice, with each party to bear its own costs and attorney’s fees and with all rights of appeal waived.”
In addition to Westfield Transport, which closed permanently in the wake of the June 21, 2019, crash, the Pilgrim Insurance lawsuit named as defendants Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, who allegedly was under the influence of drugs when the pickup truck he was operating, and the empty trailer it was towing, crossed into the eastbound travel lane and collided with the Jarheads; as well as the three Jarheads who were injured and the estates of those killed.
The victims in the crash were Desma Oakes, of Concord; Aaron Perry, of Farmington; Michael Ferazzi, of Contoocook; Albert Mazza, of Lee; Joanne and Edward Corr, of Lakeville, Mass.; and Daniel Pereira, of Riverside, R.I.
Being held without bail at the Coos County House of Corrections, Zhukovskyy, 24, of West Springfield, Mass., has pleaded not guilty to seven counts each of negligent homicide, negligent homicide – DUI; and manslaughter; as well as reckless operation; aggravated DUI with serious injury; and reckless conduct with a deadly weapon.
If he does not change his plea prior to a March 1 final pretrial hearing, his trial will commence later that month and may extend into April.
On Dec. 1, the National Transportation Safety Board will hold a virtual hearing on the cause of the Randolph crash and afterwards present its conclusions.
A lawsuit filed last August in Strafford County Superior Court by Mary Lou Welch of Lee against Westfield Transport explains some of the background for Sorokin’s recent orders.
Welch, who identified herself in court papers as Mazza’s common-law wife, seeks damages from Westfield Transport for hiring Zhukovskyy, who came to the company with a questionable driving record.
In a June 8 motion to stay the case, Welch, through her attorney, Charles Douglas, said she sought the action because Pilgrim Insurance had filed a petition in U.S. District Court – the lawsuit that Sorokin dismissed Oct. 30 – “in which the insurer seeks to pay its million dollars of coverage into court to cover all claims from the seven deceased motorcycle riders, as well as suits and claims by various family members and estates as well as those alive but uninjured.”
The motion, which was granted by Judge Tina Nadeau on June 26, said Sorokin was considering the action by Pilgrim Insurance and that the case was being mediated which would then lead to “a non-suit of the instance matter pending in this court.”
The Boston Globe cited an attorney connected to the Pilgrim case who said the Oct. 30 settlement was subject to a confidentiality clause, while Douglas, who was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday, told MSN.com, that the amount paid to the victims was “very inadequate,” but that it was the only compensation available to them.
Attorneys for the estates of Oakes, Perry, and Ferazzi also could not be reached before press time Wednesday.
