Strip Club Escapes $800K Verdict In Alcohol Overserving Case

Source: https://www.law360.com/

By Daniel Siegal

July 17, 2020

An Arizona appeals court has tossed a jury’s $800,000 verdict against a strip club accused of overserving alcohol to a patron who later killed two people in an auto collision, ruling that the club’s liability ended when the patron made it home and went to sleep.

In a 14-page published opinion, a three-judge panel on Thursday unanimously held that the Jaguars gentlemen’s club, operated by JAI Dining Services Phoenix Inc., isn’t responsible for its portion of the $2 million verdict won by four relatives of the people killed by Cesar Aguilera Villanueva, who was also a defendant in the suit. JAI was held 40% liable for that award by the jury.

Villanueva drank six or seven beers at Jaguar’s the night of the accident, and ostensibly was not obviously intoxicated before leaving the club around 2 a.m. Villanueva then drove to his brother’s house, and a couple of hours later a friend drove Villanueva home in his own truck, at which point Villanueva went to sleep. His sister woke him up at some point and asked him to drive her friend home, and it was after doing so that he caused the fatal crash.

The panel agreed with JAI that Villanueva’s decision to get back on the road after going home is a “superseding, intervening event of independent origin negating any negligence on JAI’s part.”

“The chain of events established by the material facts in the record leads us to conclude the risk caused by an intoxicated driver (Villanueva), who has safely reached his residence, gone to bed, and fallen asleep, with no known compelling reason to leave, cannot reasonably be said to fall within the risk created by Jaguar’s act of serving him too much alcohol,” the panel held.

The appellate panel did, however, leave intact the trial court’s order that JAI owes attorney fees and costs to the plaintiffs as a sanction for discovery violations.

Those plaintiffs – Roberto Torres, Orlenda Guillen, Hernan Gastelum Rosas and Maria Suarez – are relatives of the two people killed by Villanueva when he crashed his pickup truck, going 86 miles an hour, into a car stopped at a red light. The accident occurred at around 5 a.m. on Nov. 8, 2015, and Villanueva was arrested at the scene and later convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Thursday’s ruling also cites a prior case against JAI, in which a man who was severely injured in an auto collision with a Jaguars patron won $7.9 million in a trial against the club and the driver – but an Arizona appellate panel vacated the judgment against JAI.

That panel agreed with JAI’s argument on appeal that the trial judge failed to instruct the jury on whether Pedro Panameno’s decision to drive after making two prolonged stops – at his friend’s house and his girlfriend’s house – following the strip club visit were “intervening and superseding causes” of the accident that could have possibly absolved JAI of liability.

The appellate court in that case held that it was a matter of factual dispute whether Panameno’s friend’s house and girlfriend’s house were places “of repose,” and so refused to grant JAI judgment outright, instead ordering a new trial.

In Thursday’s ruling, however, the appellate panel held that the instant case was different because Villanueva had “unquestionably reached a place of repose – his own home, where he got into bed and went to sleep – and no one can reasonably contend otherwise.”

Attorneys for the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.

Appellate Judges Lawrence F. Winthrop, Maria Elena Cruz and David B. Gass sat on the panel that issued Thursday’s opinion.

The plaintiffs are represented by David L. Abney of Ahwatukee Legal Office PC.

JAI is represented by Eric M. Fraser and Joshua David Rothenberg Bendor of Osborn Maledon PA and Dominique T. Barrett of Quintairos Prieto Wood & Boyer PA.

The case is Roberto Torres et al. v. JAI Dining Services (Phoenix) Inc., case number 1 CA-CV 19-0544 in the Arizona Court of Appeals Division One.

–Additional reporting by Y. Peter Kang. Editing by Stephen Berg.