https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/10/us/drunk-driving-settlement-verdict-texas-trnd/index.html
dec 10 2021 CNN)A jury in Texas has awarded the largest-ever personal injury compensation in the country to a family who lost two people killed by a drunk driver.
The sum is symbolic, lawyers for the family say, but the eye-popping size of the judgment is meant to send a message about the consequences of drunken driving.
Tamra Kay Kindred was on her way home after picking up her 16-year-old granddaughter, Aujuni Tamay Anderson, from her job at Cici's Pizza on November 12, 2017. She was driving through an intersection in Corpus Christi, Texas, when a man ran a red light and hit them, according to a complaint filed in 2018.
Kindred and Anderson died in the crash, along with the driver of the other car, Joshua Delbosque, who was intoxicated.
The family of Kindred and Anderson sued the bar Delbosque had been at for negligence, alleging bartenders there overserved him. The lawsuit also named the bar's owner.
After a short trial that began Monday, a jury said the family of Kindred and Anderson is entitled to just over $301 billion, according to court documents, making it the largest personal injury award in US history. Previously, the largest amount ever awarded to a family in a personal injury award was $150 billion in 2011.
Craig Sico, one of the family's attorneys told CNN that during closing arguments at trial, he told the jury "they needed to decide how loud their voice was going to be heard" so he showed them the largest previous verdicts to other families, and they agreed.
Sico knows the dollar amount is symbolic in nature but said it is more about trying to help others understand the impact drunk driving has on others and to send a loud message so other families aren't impacted in the same way.
