Dallas Times Herald

By Kris Mullen
Of The Times Herald Staff

The family of a Paradise man killed in a car crash as he drove home drunk after buying several beers at a company-sponsored party was awarded $680,000 on Monday in an out-of-court settlement believed to be the first of its kind in Texas.

An attorney for the man's family announced settlement of a lawsuit that sought to hold a company that normally does not sell alcoholic beverages. First Gibraltar Bank liable for the actions of a drunken person.

The state's so-called dramshop law, approved by legislators in June 1987, holds bar and restaurant owners, and others selling alcoholic beverages, liable for traffic injuries and damages caused by drunken customers.

"This is now notice that anyone who has a party better be careful. And they better not sell alcohol", said Dallas attorney John Mallios, who represented the family of Thomas Jones Jr. in the lawsuit against the company, which was later merged with other savings, association to become First Gibraltar Bank.

Family wins lawsuit over party death

LAWSUIT

Evidence shows employers at the savings association sponsored a casino beach party in a Fort Worth branch parking lot on July 16, for employees and their spouses. The invitation to the party reminded guests to bring identification proving their ages, because glasses of wine and beer would be sold for $1 each.

Jones, 23, who attended the party with his wife, Laura, a thrift employee, bought several beers after they arrived at the party, about 7:30 p.m., Mallios said.

When it became obvious Thomas Jones was drunk, Laura Jones tried to take away his set of car keys, Mallios said. The couple argued, and when she returned from the restroom, party organizers told her Thomas Jones had left.

"To her horror, she found out the idiots had let him go home", Mallios said. "They knew he was so intoxicated that he was an immediate danger to himself and others".

Police reports show that as Thomas Jones drove his pickup about 11 p.m. towards the intersection of two farm roads in Wise County, he ran a stoplight and became airborne as his truck topped a crested rise to railroad tracks. The truck flew 73 feet before landing and striking a utility pole, crash investigators said Jones died that night of massive head injuries.

An autopsy showed his blood alcohol level was 0.19 percent, almost twice the level of 0.10 that a driver has to have under Texas law to be presumed intoxicated.

Jones' wife, daughter and parents sued Gibraltar citing provisions of the dramshop law. Under terms of the agreement, the family will receive $550,000 in cash, and a $130,000 trust fund will be established for the Jones' daughter, Ashley, who was 9 months old when her father died.

Mallios said by the time the daughter is able to collect the trust, when she is 25 years old, interest will make it worth more than $500,000, making the value of the settlement more than $1 million.

Attorneys representing Gibraltar would not comment about the settlement.

Several lawyers familiar with alcohol liability cases said they were unaware of other settlements in which employers accepted financial responsibility in circumstances similar to the Jones case.

"It's generally been used when the public was injured or a minor was served alcohol", said William Hartsfield, a Dallas lawyer who specializes in employment matters and a board member of the Dallas Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. "But this is not a surprising extension".

Joe Darnall, general counsel for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, said the Jones case might be the first of its kind, but more are sure to ensue.

"We are at a point where they're just starting to occur", he said. "Since 1987, it's taken time for these cases to go to trial".

A First Gibraltar Bank spokeswoman said company policy for bids the consumption of alcoholic beverages at company functions, but she was uncertain when the policy was established.