Yarborough Applegate is proud to announce that our attorneys recently secured a $3.1 million jury verdict for a 24-year-old man who was seriously injured when an underage drunk driver crashed head-on into his car in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
Attorneys David Yarborough, Reynolds Blankenship, and David Lail led the dram shop civil trial against a drunk driver and the gas station that sold alcohol to the driver.
In 2017, a Sunoco convenience store in Mount Pleasant sold four “tall boy” beers to a 19-year-old boy, who went on to share it with his 19-year-old friend. After drinking the beers, the second teen—who would later admit to being drunk from the beer he purchased at Sunoco—got behind the wheel of a car. He crossed the center line of a two-lane road into oncoming traffic and crashed into our client, Damien Cooper, who was on his way to work.
At the high speed of 75 miles per hour, the crash caused devastating injury to our client. He suffered a broken femur, two broken knees, a broken wrist, a chipped cervical bone, post concussive syndrome, a torn ACL, and a torn PCL. He required numerous orthopedic injuries and spent ten days in the hospital and over a year in physical therapy. Today, at 28 years old, his body is covered in scars, he walks with a permanent limp, and he has daily pain in his knees. The drunk driver ultimately pleaded guilty to DUI.
Sunoco denied that the sale occurred for four years. Video and documentary evidence of the sale disappeared. During trial, they argued that they had no liability for selling to a minor who shared it with another minor who then harmed our client. Sunoco also argued and presented experts that questioned the extent of our client’s injuries.
Despite their failure to accept any responsibility, our attorneys ultimately proved Sunoco was jointly at fault in this tragedy. The jury awarded Cooper $3,164,000 for his past medical expenses, all future medical expenses, 30 percent loss of earning capacity, and non-economic damages.
Disclaimer: Every case is unique, and prior results do not guarantee future outcomes.