Court Tosses Out $135M Award To Victim Of Drunk-Driving

The three-judge New Jersey state appeals panel has overturned a $135M jury verdict against Giants Stadium concessionaire Aramark and Daniel Lanzaro, whose drunken-driving accident after an NFL Giants game on October 24, 1999, left Antonia Verni paralyzed, according to Ana Alaya of the Newark STAR-LEDGER. The panel ordered a new trial, “saying that the lower court improperly allowed testimony about the ‘culture of intoxication’ at the stadium.” The court said that evidence presented by the plaintiffs about “faulty alcohol policies, poor employee training and repeated violations of the two-beer sales limit, might have ‘inflamed’ the jury.” The court said such references were “not relevant to the limited issue of service to a visibly intoxicated person.” Attorney Richard Blau, who heads an alcohol liability law group, said, “What the court is saying is that the evidence should not have been focused on the culture of the stadium at other times and other events, it should have focused on what happened then and there with that person.” Verni family attorney David Mazie said that the latest ruling “will be appealed to the state Supreme Court.” The appeals court said that a new jury “can consider defendants that were previously dismissed from the case, as potential liable parties,” including the NFL and the Giants. The court also rejected the previous ruling that all of Aramark’s subsidiaries “function as one corporation,” which means the Vernis may only be able to sue the two subsidiaries that hold the liquor license and serve the beer, “which have far fewer assets than Aramark” (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 8/4). Mazie added that Aramark “has not tightened its rules on alcohol sales, as the family had hoped.” Mazie: “I have seen nothing that they have changed in any of their policies.” Aramark would not comment or “discuss its policies on alcohol sales” (N.Y. TIMES, 8/4).

New Jersey Appellate Court Overturns $135M Jury Verdict Against Aramark, Drunken Fan