Galax woman sues orchard

By NATE HUBBARD/Staff

A Galax woman is seeking $2 million from a family-owned Wythe County farm as compensation for a severe allergic reaction she says she suffered during a 2007 visit to a corn maze.
Teresa Bond, who according to her complaint visited Williams Orchard on a retreat with her employer in September 2007, stated in the court filing that chemicals or pesticides on the crops caused her attack.
“She had gone into part of the farm, the Williams Orchard there, and was engaged in some team building activities with her employer and had a very severe allergic reaction,” said one of Bond’s attorneys, Ben Byrd.
“She was pretty much taken directly to the hospital.”
According to another one of her attorneys, James Humphreys, Bond was employed at the time by a Mt. Rogers mental health office.
“We believe that some type of pesticide or herbicide caused the reaction,” Humphreys said.
The lawsuit states that Bond had an anaphylactic reaction, which according to medical Web sites can cause difficulty breathing, shock and even death. She also claims that the pesticides caused her to suffer a heart attack.
Listed as defendants in the lawsuit are six people associated with the orchard.
Bobby Williams, who runs the farm’s day-to-day operations and was named in the lawsuit as the president of Williams Orchard, did not immediately return two phone messages seeking a response to Bond’s claims. The orchard has been served with the lawsuit, but a formal response from the defendants had not yet been filed with Wythe County Circuit Court as of Friday morning.
The lawsuit accuses Williams Orchard of being negligent in creating unsafe conditions on the farm and failing to warn Bond about the chemicals on its crops.
Bond has incurred “significant medical expenses” that remain ongoing, according to her complaint.
She also states that her treatment immediately after her exposure to the chemicals began “an uninterrupted course of medical treatment for injuries she sustained while at Williams Orchard.”
“It’s a fairly complex set of problems,” Humphreys said.
A Jan. 5, 2010, court date has been scheduled to set additional hearings for the case.
Nate Hubbard can be reached at 228-6611 or nhubbard@wythenews.com.