Hartline Barger Wins Summary Judgment for Restaurant and Server in Dram Shop Case

On February 11, 2020, Judge Jason Cashon of the 266th District Court of Erath County, Texas, granted Hartline Barger’s summary judgment for a Stephenville, Texas restaurant and its bartender in a Dram Shop death case.

The lawsuit centered on Dram Shop claims by the wife of a man who consumed one beer and two shots at the restaurant in under an hour between 11:00 a.m. and noon on July 19, 2016.  The man then left the restaurant, and approximately four hours later was found dead sitting in his parked truck in his driveway. His postmortem blood-alcohol concentration was .346.  The wife sued for Dram Shop Act violations (among other claims), and the Defendants successfully moved for summary judgment, arguing that the evidence conclusively established the man was not obviously intoxicated when Defendants served him, and that Defendants’ provision of alcohol was not the proximate cause of the man’s death.

Defendants were represented by Hartline Barger’s Brian Rawson, Stephanie Roark, Roy McKay, and Stephen Elkind.