Florida Bars Hit With $31M Verdict For Drunken Hit-And-Run
Source: Law360
By Daniel Siegal
August 23, 2019
A Florida jury on Friday hit a pair of Tallahassee bars with a $30.8 million verdict, finding that their willful serving of alcohol to underage patrons was the cause of a hit-and-run accident that left a woman with permanent brain damage.
After deliberating for less than two hours, the Tallahassee jury returned with a verdict in favor of plaintiff Jacquelyn Faircloth, finding that the driver in the accident, Devon Dwyer, was intoxicated after drinking for several hours at bar Potbelly’s, owned by Main Street Entertainment Inc., on the night of the 2014 accident. The jury furthermore found that Dwyer’s intoxication contributed to him hitting Faircloth, who was walking across the street, with his pickup truck.
The jury awarded Faircloth $5.4 million for her past medical expenses, $15.8 million for her future medical expenses, nearly $2.6 million for her lost earnings capacity, and $7 million for her past and future pain and suffering.
The damages also apply against another bar, Cantina 101, owned by Cantina Tallahassee LLC, that served Faircloth, who was underage, the night of the accident and admitted liability before the trial.
Earlier on Friday, Faircloth’s attorney Mark Avera of Avera & Smith told the jury that the case against Potbelly’s hinged solely on whether Dwyer was intoxicated, as it was already determined that the bar had willfully and illegally served him alcohol as a minor.
Avera said there was a bevy of evidence to show that Dwyer was intoxicated, including his credit card receipts showing he bought 18 beers and six bourbons at Potbelly’s, his own admission that he had been drinking beer for four hours and his decision to leave the scene of the accident. But the most damning thing, Avera said, was Dwyer’s behavior when directly asked if he was intoxicated.
“I said, ‘Mr. Dwyer, if you’re honest with yourself, sir, wouldn’t you acknowledge you were probably intoxicated?’ Does everybody remember that moment? Because there was a period of silence,” Avera said. “We could see he was struggling with whatever was going through his mind in that moment with all those acknowledgements and all those admissions, and after that long, awkward silence he finally looked down, shook his head, looked up and said, ‘No, I was fine.'”
Avera then said that while his client bore some culpability for the accident, the case wasn’t about the poor decisions of underage people but rather “about adults who have liquor licenses willfully and illegally selling alcohol to underage people.”
Avera also implied that Potbelly’s had deleted security footage showing Dwyer drinking at the bar, telling the jury that phone records showed Dwyer called the bar at 2:18 a.m., shortly after the crash, and that when police collected the security footage hard drives, it appeared one had been erased.
The accident left Faircloth with brain damage that renders her unable to speak or care for herself, according to Avera.
Potbelly’s attorney Brian Chojnowski of Kubicki Draper told the jury that Dwyer may have been speeding, but that didn’t mean he was intoxicated, and that the collision was Faircloth’s fault.
“If Jacquelyn Faircloth had walked straight across the road, not at this extreme angle that we see described, she would have passed in front of that vehicle with at least 3 seconds to spare, this wouldn’t have happened,” he said.
The trial, which began Aug. 19, was presided over by 2nd Judicial Circuit Judge Kevin Carroll.
The case first headed to a jury in February of this year, but after jurors deadlocked Judge Carroll declared a mistrial.
Faircloth is represented by Mark Avera of Avera & Smith.
Potbelly’s is represented by Brian E. Chojnowski of Kubicki Draper.
Cantina 101 is represented by Alan R. Horky of Cole Scott & Kissane PA.
The case is Guardianship of Jacquelyn Anne Faircloth v. Cantina Tallahassee LLC, case number 37-2015-CA-002778 in the 2nd Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida.