Jury orders to pay US $ 301,000 million to the family of two people who were killed by a drunk driver. They don’t expect a dollar

(CNN) – A Texas jury awarded the largest personal injury award to date in the country to a family that lost two of its members to a drunk driver.

The sum is symbolic, the family’s attorneys say, but the striking size of the sentence is intended to send a message about the consequences of driving under the influence.

Tamra Kay Kindred was driving home after picking up her 16-year-old granddaughter, Aujuni Tamay Anderson, from her job at Cici’s Pizza on November 12, 2017. She was driving through an intersection in Corpus Christi, Texas, when a man jumped a red light and ran them over, according to a complaint filed in 2018.

Kindred and Anderson were killed in the accident, along with the driver of the other car, Joshua Delbosque, who was intoxicated.

Kindred and Anderson’s family sued the bar Delbosque had been to for negligence, alleging that the bar’s waiters over-served him. The lawsuit also named the owner of the bar.

Following a brief trial that began Monday, a jury declared that Kindred and Anderson’s family are entitled to just over $ 301 billion, according to court documents, making it the largest personal injury award in Kindred’s history. U.S.

Previously, the highest amount awarded to a family in personal injury compensation was $ 150 billion in 2011.

Craig Sico, one of the family’s attorneys, told CNN that during closing arguments at the trial, he told the jury that he “had to decide how loud his voice was going to be heard,” so he showed them the biggest previous verdicts in other cases, and they agreed. Sico knows that the amount of money is symbolic in nature, but he said it is more about helping others understand the impact that driving under the influence has on other people and sending a strong message so that other families do not know. are affected in the same way.

John Flood, another attorney for the family, said that “the purpose of civil litigation is to remind the community, the state and the nation of the horrible costs of drunk driving.”

The lawsuit claimed that Delbosque had been served excess alcohol at Beer Belly’s sports bar that night, saying that “it was evident to Beer Belly’s that Delbosque was obviously intoxicated” and that his intoxication was the cause of the injuries and damage to the victims.
CNN has contacted Beer Belly’s attorney and its owner, but has not received a response.

“Beer Belly’s knew or should have known that Delbosque was a danger to himself and others due to his intoxication and lack of control of his mental and physical faculties,” the lawsuit states.

The family does not expect to receive money from the settlement

Kindred’s family and granddaughter say they do not expect to receive any money from the bar or its owner because the bar is out of service and the previous owners do not have enough capital to pay any judgment, Sico said.

According to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC), Beer Belly’s license to dispense spirits expired in September 2019 and its license has been canceled.

“This case illustrates the consequences of selling alcohol to a person who has already had too much to drink,” a TABC spokesman told CNN on Friday. “Texas law requires alcohol retailers to cut off sales to customers who show signs of intoxication. Those who violate the law could face financial and legal consequences if their actions contribute to loss of life,” he added.

Sico said they are going to try to get some kind of compensation for the family, but “since Texas does not require that bars and restaurants that serve alcohol have insurance, this happens too often.”

They hope to create a change to “a requirement that any establishment that serves alcohol must have insurance,” he told CNN. “If bars and restaurants are required to have insurance for this, then the insurance companies would have oversight of that industry helping to ensure that this does not happen again.”

“This verdict we are seeking was out of love, not revenge,” he told CNN.

Delbosque left the bar with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.263, according to the toxicology report. In Texas, people are legally intoxicated when their blood alcohol concentration reaches 0.08%, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

Kindred’s daughters, Jennifer Kindred and Elizabeth Anderson, who is also the mother of the teenage victim, encouraged drinkers to take a taxi, a carpool or ask a friend to drive them home in such cases.

“Also, to all bartenders, bar owners and bartenders, it’s okay to care about their customers enough not to let them get drunk and drive,” they said in an email.

CNN’s Kay Jones contributed to this report.