Jury awards parents $27 million in College Station McDonald's negligence lawsuit

[TexasTowelie]

A Brazos County jury awarded a $27 million verdict Wednesday in a negligence lawsuit against McDonald’s filed by the parents of two Blinn College students who died in 2012.

The parents of Denton James Ward, 18, of Flower Mound, and Lauren Bailey Crisp, 19, of Dripping Springs were suing McDonald’s on claims the fast-food corporation’s lack of security led to the death of their children, both of whom were pronounced dead shortly before 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 18, 2012, after they were in a car accident after leaving the University Drive McDonald’s.

When the accident occurred, Crisp and Ward, along with Tanner Giesen, 19, were being driven in Ward’s vehicle by their friend, Samantha Bean, 20, who was attempting to get Ward and Giesen to the hospital after they’d been severely beaten by a group of men at the McDonald’s across from Texas A&M, according to testimony.

The vehicle was struck by another vehicle when Bean, who had been drinking but was never criminally charged, ran a red light at Holleman Drive.

More at http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/jury-awards-parents-million-in-mcdonald-s-negligence-lawsuit/article_df73eb82-1827-11e4-ad0c-001a4bcf887a.html .

BRYAN – A Brazos County jury awarded a $27 million verdict in a civil lawsuit against McDonald’s following the 2012 deaths of two Blinn College students.

Denton James Ward, 18, of Flower Mound, and Lauren Bailey Crisp, 19, of Dripping Springs were killed when they ran a red light at Texas and Holleman Drive. They were on their way to the hospital after being beaten by a mob at the McDonald’s on University Drive.

Their parents claim the deaths could have been avoided if McDonald’s had hired security guards to prevent the fights that had happened regularly over the past year.

“We hope this verdict sends a powerful message to McDonald’s and other companies that protecting customers is more important than late-night revenue,” says attorney Chris Hamilton. “The night these two kids died, this was a dangerous location, and McDonald’s knew it. Yet they did nothing to prevent their senseless deaths.”

Additional reporting at http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/Jury-Awards-27-Million-In-McDonalds-Lawsuit-Over-Teens-Deaths-269278801.html .

[freshwest]

1. Hello? 'fights that had happened regularly over the past year'? What's going on in Bryan?

It seemed boring when I visited family living there years ago.*

Why would a mob beat them, and at a McDonald's, no less?

Are violent mobs now the norm there?

I can't find online the original event, just the news about the lawsuit. I don't know what this was really about.

*"You can't go back home to your family, back home to your childhood ... back home to a young man's dreams of glory and of fame ... back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time – back home to the escapes of Time and Memory."

~ Thomas Wolfe in You Can't Go Home Again:

The novel tells the story of George Webber, a fledgling author, who writes a book that makes frequent references to his home town of Libya Hill. The book is a national success but the residents of the town, unhappy with what they view as Webber's distorted depiction of them, send the author menacing letters and death threats.[2][3]

Wolfe, as in many of his other novels, explores the changing American society of the 1920s/30s, including the stock market crash, the illusion of prosperity, and the unfair passing of time which prevents Webber ever being able to return "home again".

In parallel to Wolfe's relationship with America, the novel details his disillusionment with Germany during the rise of Nazism.[4][5]

Wolfe scholar Jon Dawson argues that the two themes are connected most firmly by Wolfe's critique of capitalism and comparison between the rise of capitalist enterprise in the United States in the 1920s and the rise of Fascism in Germany during the same period.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can%27t_Go_Home_Again

[TexasTowelie]

2. Here is a story about a mob at a Bryan convenience store earlier this year.

http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/article_7b6b1ce3-bd6b-53c8-a95b-6bbfa2a7981b.html

The comments in the article also mention some gang related problems at the schools. I've noted a number of arrests over the past two to three years for harder drugs such as PCP, meth and ecstasy in the Bryan/College Station area. One of my friends that lives there has advised me that College Station remains okay, but to stay out of Bryan as much as possible. The last few times that I was there in 2012 and 2013 to catch Greyhound buses the area looked very seedy compared to when I used to drive through about a decade earlier.

[freshwest]

3. That's a shame. Those drugs have ruined many communities. TY for the info.

[TexasTowelie]

6. Hello freshwest,

The link that I provided in the OP has more detail about the underlying story than when it was posted a few days ago. The comments section was also interesting. BTW, I went to Hurricane Harry's previously and I'm not surprised that there is underage drinking occurring there.

http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/jury-awards-parents-million-in-mcdonald-s-negligence-lawsuit/article_df73eb82-1827-11e4-ad0c-001a4bcf887a.html

[johncoby2]

4. This happened across the street from A&M. In College Station. Not Bryan

FYI.

Besides, it will be overturned by the Supreme Court. McDonalds didnt donate a shitload of money to the justices for nothing.

[TexasTowelie]

5. Yes, I noted that in the title.

I've driven by that McDonalds many times, but never ate there. The trial was in Bryan.

[freshwest]

7. Okay... But I consider Bryan/College Station as virtually the same place. Everyone I knew in Bryan

Last edited Fri Aug 1, 2014, 02:17 PM - Edit history (1)

had jobs in College Station, which is 'neither here nor there.'

I know it's two towns, was even thinking of College Station as I wrote, as it referred to University Drive. But they're barely separated in practical terms, as I've driven through both many times.

I'd read the link, that gives the opinion of the defense attorney and sequence of events, but does not answer my real question:

Who beat them, how many there were that beat them, or what in the hell made them want to beat them in the first place?

Guess we will never know at this rate. TY fo the OP. Unfortunately, this will probably be used by OCT or some other RWNJ group.

The history of assaults cited by the plaintiffs has dropped near down to the level of hearsay or rumor, as the article didn't give us anything to review. This seems to be more and more the pattern in our various 'news' stories.

And I do think it will be overturned somewhere in the appeals process, but have mixed feelings on the cause of death, as there is a dispute on whether the injuries would have been fatal without having been in the car.

It's not like this case where a man clearly died of the injuries inflicted by four young people ranging from age 16 to 19. They have all been arrested. The young man who died was only 24 years old and likewise a student in a college town:

Police and prosecutors say Ji was beaten with a bat and suffered a head injury. Detectives said they believe he may have tried to get away from his attackers, only to be beaten a second time, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation.

Despite his injury, Ji managed to make it home to his apartment, where, police said, a roommate found his body later that morning.

From the link at this story posted by alp227:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=860121