LAKE CHARLES, La. (Legal Newsline) - A Louisiana bar wasn’t responsible for the death of a young woman who ran headlong into a truck exiting the parking lot after getting into a fight with her girlfriend, an appeals court ruled, upholding a jury verdict for the defense.
Richard and Patricia Pannell sued Cowboys Nightclub in Scott and Chase Franks, the driver of the truck that hit their daughter Kylie, after she was killed in December 2014. The plaintiffs claimed the Cowboys parking lot was dangerously laid out and Chase was liable for driving while intoxicated.
A jury ruled the parking lot presented an unreasonable risk of harm but it wasn’t a substantial contributing factor in Kylie’s death. The jury also found Chase wasn’t liable for the accident.
The parents appealed, as did the owner of Cowboys Nightclub. The parents argued the jury didn’t understand what “substantial factor” meant and the trial judge erred by allowing in deposition testimony from Kylie’s girlfriend, Paizlee Fabian, about events before the accident. Cowboys argued the jury erred by finding its parking lot design to be defective.
Louisiana’s Third Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed all of the trial court’s decisions in an opinion by Judge Guy Bradberry.
Cowboys presented witnesses who said patrons had been using the parking lot for 30 years without any accidents involving pedestrians. But other witnesses testified that the parking lot was dark and crowded with cars the night of the accident because a popular musician was playing. Cowboys hired police officers to deal with fights but they weren’t directing traffic.
“While there was no evidence presented that Cowboys was required to have signage, striping, or traffic personnel, the Pannells did present evidence which would permit a jury to find that Cowboys had a duty to better control conditions in its parking lot on busy nights,” the appeals court ruled. “The jury could have decided that Cowboys should have taken precautions to lessen the chaos, such as hiring personnel to direct the exiting vehicles and perhaps, adding additional lighting.”
The jury was instructed to find for the defense if they determined the accident would have occurred regardless of what Cowboys did or didn’t do. Both sides agreed Kylie was a regular at Cowboys, familiar with the layout of the parking lot and she was wearing an all-black outfit the night of the accident.
Fabian testified she wanted to leave at 1:30 because Kylie was flirting with another girl. She left the bar and got into someone else’s car, but Kylie followed her and the two got into an argument in the car, after which Paizlee got into a different car and drove off.
Witness Dylan Thomas testified he didn’t drink that night because he was a designated driver. He said he saw Kylie sprinting across the parking lot, stopped to avoid hitting her, and she ran straight into the truck driven by Chase Frank as it was turning out of the parking lot. He stated “he had never seen anybody run like that in the parking lot.”
Frank said he never saw Kylie until she hit his truck. Police officers administered a field sobriety test and found him to be intoxicated.
“We find that there was sufficient evidence presented to the jury that the sole substantial factor that caused this accident was Kylie’s inattentiveness while running through a crowded parking lot as vehicles were exiting,” the appeals court concluded.