CHAPTER 402

An Act for the relief of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene H. Goodman.
[S 420]

Approved April 2, 1968

Whereas, on December seventeen, nineteen hundred sixty-seven, the
two sons of Eugene H. Goodman and Gloria Goodman of Amherst County,
while playing in the back yard of their home, were attacked and killed
by three dogs, two of which were large German Shepherd dogs, the prop-
erty of a neighbor of the Goodmans by the name of Rip Floyd; and

Whereas, these German Shepherd dogs were known to be of a vicious
nature and had on at least one previous occasion bitten other persons,
which fact had been called to the attention of the state and local officials
of said county; and

Whereas, although the dog warden ordered Rip Floyd to keep the dogs
penned up, the dogs were running at large on the day aforesaid; and

Whereas, there is no other way that Mr. and Mrs. Goodman can be
compensated for their tragic loss; and

Whereas, Mr. Goodman was injured in his desperate efforts to rescue
his children from the dogs and was hospitalized therefor, and Mrs. Good-
man, as an aftermath of the tragedy, required hospitalization and psychi-
atric treatment and will continue to require such treatment, all resulting
in considerable expense; now, therefore,

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. There is hereby appropriated from the general fund in the State
treasury the sum of five thousand dollars which shall be paid by the
State Treasurer on warrant of the Comptroller to the Amherst County
Welfare Department as welfare aid to Eugene H. and Gloria Goodman;
said department shall pay from said sum the funeral expenses for the burial
of said children not to exceed the total sum of eight hundred dollars and
the balance thereof shall be paid to Eugene H. and Gloria Goodman
in monthly payments to be determined by the Department; the sum hereby
appropriated is declared exempt from levy or garnishment by creditors of
the Goodmans and the Commonwealth of Virginia is subrogated to any
recovery made by the Goodmans as a result of the death of the two sons
in an amount not to exceed five thousand dollars.