$6.8 million awarded in DUI case
Published: Thursday, August 19, 2010
By MICHAEL P. RELLAHAN Staff Writer
WEST CHESTER - The driver whose drunken collision with a Coatesville woman caused her severe, lifelong injuries was served as many as 12 beers at the Famous Restaurant before he got behind the wheel of his car, according to the man's testimony in the civil case that saw the woman awarded more than $6 million in damages.
Omar Villalva-Martinez said in a transcribed deposition read during the trial against the owners of the popular restaurant on East Lincoln Highway that someone at the bar told him he had been drinking too much and was drunk, and that even his barber told him how intoxicated he appeared when he stopped in to get a haircut that night.
But he said the bartender made no effort to cut him off, continuing to serve him as long as he had money to pay.
"Did she ever tell you that you should stop drinking?" attorney Dawson R. Muth asked Villalva-Martinez during the deposition. "No," he replied.
Ryan Fell, a 25-year-old former customer service representative for an area trucking company, won $6.8 million in damages from the owners and manager of the restaurant, located in downtown Coatesville. The main defendant is 340 Associates, a corporation owned by two West Chester developers, brothers Andrew and Chris McCool, which held the restaurant's liquor license.
The suit was filed against the restaurant under the state's Dram Shop Law, which dictates that if a liquor license holder serves a patron who is visibly intoxicated, it can be held liable for damages if the patron then injures someone.
"It is gratifying to see a jury award that truly reflects the nature and extent of the injuries suffered," said Muth, the former West Chester district justice and partner in the borough firm of Goldberg, Muth & Meanix, who said he was "shocked" at the size of the award. Fell, he said, "will continue to suffer for the rest of her life."
The attorney for 340 Associates, Michael T. Imms of West Chester, could not be reached for comment, having a constant busy signal on his telephone number.
Muth said he believed the damage award was among the largest of its kind for a Dram Shop Law complaint in Chester County, if not the largest. However, he said there was an issue as to how much his client could expect to collect.
"We are looking into the assets of all the defendants," he said.
Named in the suit besides 340 Associates, the company owner, were the manager hired by the corporation to run the business, Nazario and Mercado Tapia, as well as Villalva-Martinez himself. Villalva-Martinez, a woodshop worker who lived in Parkesburg at the time of the crash, has been deported to his native Mexico.
The crash occurred on March 15, 2007. Villalva-Martinez said in his testimony, which was read into the record in Judge Jacqueline Cody's courtroom during the two-day trial, that he had gone to work at 6 a.m. that day and left work around 5:30 p.m. He drove to the bar around 7 p.m. and began ordering Coors Light bottles.
Muth asked how much he had to drink and Villalva-Martinez initially said between six and 12 bottles of beer. He later, however, said that he had a dozen. The drinking, he said, made him "happy and dizzy." He stayed at the bar for about 2½ hours, then left to get his haircut and drive home.
The suit alleged that Villalava-Martinez left the restaurant in the 300 block of East Lincoln Highway in Coatesville and drove a 1996 Ford Explorer west toward Parkesburg. He crossed the center line of Lincoln Highway in Sadsbury and collided with a 2006 Nissan driven by Fell, who suffered injuries to her legs, head, neck, spine, torso and back. She underwent surgery three times after the crash, and spent 10 days in Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital.
Muth said the injuries to her legs persist. She is in pain from the time she gets out of bed in the morning until going to sleep at night and the discomfort increases as the day goes on. She cannot run, and finds it difficult to climb stairs.
Muth said the defense contended that there was no independent witnesses who could verify how much Villalva-Martinez drank at the restaurant that day or whether he appeared intoxicated. It also argued that the owners of the restaurant, 340 Associates, should not be held accountable because they did not serve him - an employee of the management company did.
But Muth said the Dram Shop Law was written specifically to hold owners such as 340 Associates liable for actions of their "servants or agents."
The McCools are the developers who are currently building housing at the former Bishop Shanahan High School site in West Chester, and have also proposed a luxury apartment complex at the former Yearsley's Hardware location on East Market Street.
To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan, send an e-mail to mrellahan@dailylocal.com.
