> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.richmonder.org/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # A jury ordered Richmond to pay $2M to a man who fell after a library railing broke. Now the city’s insurer is suing Richmond. - URL: https://www.richmonder.org/a-jury-ordered-richmond-to-pay-2m-to-a-man-who-fell-after-a-library-railing-broke-now-the-citys-insurer-is-suing-richmond/ - Published: 2026-11-04T10:55:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-04T10:54:59.000Z - Description: Max took his case to a jury and was awarded $2 million plus interest, a verdict the city intends to appeal. - Author: Sarah Vogelsong - Tags: City Government, #the-bridge One chilly early afternoon in December 2024, Paul Buck went to a lunchtime Christmas party at Richmond’s First Baptist Church on Monument Avenue and then headed downtown to the library to look for work. Buck often went to the Main Library. There, he would use the computers, charge his phone and sometimes go into the back park area for a smoke break. On Dec. 16, 2024, however, Buck spotted an acquaintance on the building’s soaring front porch and stopped to chat. He and Joseph Ashely Max weren’t close, but both saw each other frequently at the library while on the hunt for jobs and would sometimes swap tips on who might be hiring. They leaned on the metal porch railing while they talked, Buck facing out toward Franklin Street, Max with his back to the road. Then the railing snapped. “That’s about all I remember besides waking up in the ambulance,” Buck would say in a deposition that recounted the events of Dec. 16 much later. The failure of the railing sent both men tumbling some 6 feet toward the ground. Buck went head over heels and into a tree. Max fell backward. “They said I screamed a couple times when I hit but I don’t remember that,” said Buck in his deposition. As a result of the fall, Buck would suffer five fractured ribs, a broken collarbone, a torn finger tendon, a chip in his left knee that caused bone spurs and fluid in his lung, injuries that would lead to multiple hospitalizations. Max, according to court records, suffered multiple herniated discs in his back. In July, he told a jury “how he can no longer walk to the corner store without pain, how he must sit down to cook a meal, and how pain has affected intimacy with his fiance,” his lawyers wrote in a filing. “Two of the main things that were taken from him is that because of his back injury and the extent of the injury that he had, he was no longer able to use the restroom without assistance afterwards,” Gray Broughton, one of Max’s attorneys, told The Richmonder. “Also, he was no longer able to make love to his fiancee.” Both men eventually sued Richmond over the fall, saying the city was at fault for allowing the railing to deteriorate to the point of failure. Buck settled his case out of court in December 2025\. While the settlement terms are confidential, [Virginia courts have ruled](https://opengovva.org/opinion%5Ftopics/settlement-of-lawsuit-against-a-public-official-or-public-body/) that amounts of settlements paid out by local governments are subject to disclosure under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. Ross Catrow, a spokesperson for the city, said Richmond had paid $1.1 million in the Buck case. Max took his case to a jury and this July was awarded $2 million plus interest, a verdict the city intends to appeal. “It's a large verdict,” Broughton acknowledged. “But I think if we asked ourselves, ‘Would we accept $2 million to go through that ourselves?’ I think the answer would probably be no.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/06/99067822-fdfd-42b1-ab19-555c33eefb89/content/images/2026/11/FCD052F9-F000-42DE-AB6C-B01A1467C4C2.jpeg) But after the verdict, the case took an unusual turn. Richmond, like many other local governments in Virginia, gets liability insurance through a self-insurance risk pool known as [VACorp](https://www.vacorp.org/about/). In liability cases, the pool helps the city defend itself against claims for personal injury or property damages and will cover some amount of any payout the city faces as long as it doesn’t involve criminal action. This September, VACorp in turn sued both Richmond and Max, saying the city had violated its coverage contract by admitting liability “without any advice or consent” from the insurer. That the city admitted liability in the case does not appear to be in question: In multiple filings this summer, Richmond noted it was not disputing liability but rather how much should be paid out to Max. What is being contested, however, is whether the city got permission from the insurer to do so, in line with the coverage agreement between the two. “The City did not obtain any consent at all to admit liability,” wrote Johneal White, an attorney with the Glenn Robinson Cathey Skaff & White law firm representing VACorp in the suit. Consequently, VACorp contends it “has no duty to indemnify the City for the amount of the verdict, at all.” Furthermore, said the insurer, it has no responsibility to put further resources toward Richmond’s defense if an appeal goes forward. But in a recent filing, city attorneys Monica Malouf and Pete Johnson denied Richmond had violated its contract with VACorp, arguing the city “provided proper notice” to the insurer and VACorp had “waived its ability to enforce the clause of the contract requiring consent for admission of liability.” Richmond also disputed VACorp’s stance that it has no further duty to defend the city or cover any part of the verdict. Beyond that, Catrow said the city “can’t comment on active litigation.” VACorp did not respond to questions about the lawsuit. Max, for his part, is arguing that because he wasn’t a party to any agreement between the city and the insurer, there’s no legal basis to reduce or otherwise tie up the amount he was awarded by a jury. “Ultimately, it's either going to be the city of Richmond that's going to foot that bill, or it's going to be VACorp that’s going to foot that bill,” Broughton told The Richmonder. “But our view is that it's a good verdict.” *Contact Reporter Sarah Vogelsong at* [*svogelsong@richmonder.org*](mailto:svogelsong@richmonder.org)