LANSING, Mich. (Legal Newsline) – The owner of a Michigan Buffalo Wild Wings got good news from a state appeals court in a lawsuit blaming it for a fatal car accident caused by a customer in 2015.
On April 22, the Court of Appeals ordered the Chippewa Circuit Court to enter judgment in favor of AMC Sault Ste. Marie in the case brought by the estate of Jared Baragwanath.
Baragwanath was a passenger in a car struck head-on by Stacy Linklater, who crossed the center line of the Mackinac Trail in Sault Ste. Marie after she spent four hours drinking beer at the BWW. Her blood-alcohol level was .18 and she also tested positive for marijuana, leading to a 10-year prison sentence.
The Chippewa court found there was still a question of whether Linklater, who drank four tall beers and one regular-sized beer, was visibly intoxicated but the appeals court reversed that ruling.
Employees testified Linklater was not staggering or slurring her words.
“Moreover, the video surveillance footage did not depict any outward or visible conduct by Linklater that would indicate that she was intoxicated,” the ruling says. “The surveillance footage is of very poor quality and does not contain any sound.
“Even when Linklater is visible, the video surveillance footage does not reveal any objective manifestations of intoxication such that Linklater’s intoxication would have been apparent to an ordinary observer. The footage contains several instances of Linklater walking through the restaurant and at no point does she stagger, stumble, fall down, or otherwise appear to have difficulty with her coordination.
“Although Linklater’s body is difficult to see while she is seated at the table, she does appear to just sit there calmly without moving around excessively, aggressively, or in an inebriated manner. Other restaurant patrons in the area do not at any point look towards Linklater’s table in a way that would suggest that she was being loud or otherwise calling attention to herself.”
She did spill a drink when reaching across her table, though, but the court said one spilled drink over four hours is not enough to prove Linklater was visibly intoxicated.
Plaintiffs also pointed to the Linklater running into a door jamb as she tried to leave, which occurred about an hour after she was served her last drink.
“It does not appear, however, that Linklater ran into the door jamb as a result of being intoxicated,” the decision says. “Regardless, while one could infer from this evidence that Linklater was intoxicated and had been for some time before leaving the restaurant, the evidence was insufficient to demonstrate actual visible intoxication at the time of service.”
Baragwanath was only 19 years old.