North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
A Wake County mother and child were injured during a collision with a drunk driver. The plaintiffs have settled their claims against the driver and the establishments that served him for $2.51 million, the plaintiff’s attorneys, Winston Kirby and Andrew Avram reported.
Kirby
According to the plaintiff’s counsel, their clients were struck by a drunk driver who was traveling the wrong direction down the highway and struck the plaintiff’s vehicle head-on. The accident resulted in permanent facial and arm scarring, a fractured arm, and abrasions to the mother, and minor injuries to the child in the back seat.
Receipts from multiple bars where the driver was served the day of the accident indicated that the driver would have been extremely intoxicated, the plaintiff attorneys reported. According to Kirby, the driver had no memory of the events of the day after the second bar he visited, nearly five hours before the wreck.
“It was clear from the receipts from the bars that the drunk driver had consumed enough alcohol to the point where he would have been highly intoxicated,” Kirby said. “Our position was that the drunk driver had no memory of the events of the day because he had consumed enough alcohol that his brain was incapable of forming and retaining memories of the day’s events. When someone is that drunk, he would have appeared intoxicated to anyone, including the bartenders and servers who continued to serve him alcohol.”
The establishment denied that there was any evidence that the defendant was visibly intoxicated at the time he was served. The defendants contended that because the driver had returned to his home after visiting several bars, the alcohol consumed at those bars was not a proximate cause of the collision. Additionally, the defendants contended that there was insufficient evidence to prove that the driver appeared visibly intoxicated at any of the bars.
Avram
According to Avram the plaintiff counsel discovered that the driver had consumed at least 10 drinks at the same bar over the course of two hours, and then stopped at another bar, less than a mile from the scene of the accident, where he had an additional three drinks less than an hour before the collision.
“Importantly, the last bar that the drunk driver visited had clear policies in place that prohibited bartenders from serving alcohol to intoxicated patrons,” Avram said. “In the event that a bartender acknowledged or observed that a patron was intoxicated, the bar had a policy requiring that a taxi or ride be called for that person. We know that based on the receipts obtained in this case, this individual was severely intoxicated, and pursuant to the policies and procedures of the final bar, he should have never been served in the first place and he certainly should not have been allowed to drive himself away from the bar.”
The plaintiff’s counsel reported that the defendants contended that the mother’s injuries were insufficient to warrant a large recovery, and that her child had suffered almost no harm. The driver plead guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol, plaintiff’s counsel reported.
According to the plaintiff’s attorneys, none of the bars he visited on the day of the collision received citations or warnings from the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission.
The defendants collectively paid $2.51 million to the plaintiffs at mediation.
Type: Motor vehicle accident, dram shop claims
Verdict or settlement? Settlement
Amount: $2.51 Million
Injuries: Permanent scarring, fractured arm, abrasions
Case Name: Withheld
Court: Withheld
Date of settlement: Winter 2022
Attorneys for plaintiffs: Winston Kirby and Andrew Avram, Edwards Kirby, LLP
