The company that produced the identification bracelets used in 1995's infamous University Hospital baby swap filed a motion last week to dismiss one of the switched babies' mother's lawsuits against the corporation.
Precision Dynamics Corp. petitioned the Stafford County Circuit Court to dismiss Paula Johnson's suit arguing that the statute of limitations has been exceeded.
The corporation asserts that Johnson's claim of emotional distress is invalid and that only the University Hospital should dole out a settlement to her. In 1998, Johnson filed two separate claims against the corporation and the University, both for $24 million.
She is seeking the decision against the company on behalf of Callie Conley, the daughter she raised. In the Hospital case she is seeking $12 million for herself and $12 million for Rebecca Chittum, her biological child.
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The switched-baby case was discovered in July 1998 following a child-support dispute between Johnson and her ex-boyfriend Carlton Conley, who claimed he was not the father of the child.
DNA test results revealed neither Johnson nor Conley were the biological parents of Callie Conley, who Johnson had been raising since 1995.
Hospital officials soon identified Rebecca Chittum as Johnson and Conley's biological daughter.
The parents who had been raising Rebecca as their own child, Kevin Chittum and Whitney Rogers, were killed in a car accident only a few days before Hospital officials discovered the switch and attempted to contact them.
Chittum's and Rogers' parents now share custody of Rebecca.
Johnson is suing the company for breach of implied warranty and is seeking $12 million for herself and $12 million for her biological daughter, Rebecca Chittum. She seeks $24 million in compensatory and punitive damages from the Hospital on behalf of the child, Callie, she is raising.
Precision Dynamics requests that the case against the company be severed from the case against the hospital.
"There is nothing from a point of view of the law that would tie these cases together except for the fact that it's the same plaintiff in both cases," Precision Dynamics spokesman Lew Phelps said.
Previously the company has maintained that problems with the bracelets were not caused by faulty manufacturing, but instead by mistakes by Hospital personnel who incorrectly put them on the babies soon after birth, causing the switch.
Hospital attorneys Steuart Thomas and Gregory Lucyk said in a statement that they agree with the company that the suits be severed "because they are based on completely different theories" and assert entirely different claims about the baby-switching incident.
Thomas and Lucyk filed their own motion to separate the cases, as well as a request for dismissal of the claims against the Hospital defendants.
Phelps said the claims in Precision Dynamics' motions are not new and affirm the company's original position on the case, which it has had throughout the legal saga.
"This is not a new and suddenly taken position," Phelps said. "It has been a consistent position of the company from the outset."
The company requested the hearing take place Sept. 18, but Phelps said it is uncertain if that will be the actual date.
At the hearing, the court has the option of ruling on the motions or deciding to take them into further consideration before offering a decision at a later time.
Last November, a Buena Vista judge denied Paula Johnson custody of her biological daughter, but granted her visitation rights in order to form a bond with the child.
In April, a judge approved an agreement made between the families. The children will remain with the families who raised them but the court granted visitation rights to the biological families.
Johnson and her attorney Ken Mergenthal could not be reached for comment.
The suit is the second one filed by Johnson. Her previous suit was filed in the spring of 1999, and demanded $31 million in damages.
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