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.
After a day of drinking on Shem Creek and in downtown Charleston, our client’s intoxicated girlfriend crashed head-on into another vehicle as he slept in the back seat of the car.
Our attorneys are dedicated to holding all parties accountable for car accidents injuries caused by intoxicated drivers—including the drivers themselves and any commercial alcohol retailers who overserved the driver in violation of the law.
Yarborough Applegate attorneys reached a $1.6 million settlement for the widow of a man who was killed when a driver hit him head-on.
In a dram shop case stemming from a deadly July 4, 2019, hit-and-run in which a drunk driver hit a cyclist, Yarborough Applegate attorneys Liam Duffy and David Yarborough recently obtained a key court ruling on behalf of the cyclist’s family.
The suit was brought on by our plaintiff, a Claflin University student and the lone survivor of the wreck. The hard-earned verdict was the culmination of years of work and followed a nearly two-week trial.
Our attorneys will take the lead on educating our peers on what we’ve learned from handling dram shop cases through a series of continuing education opportunities.