Family Files Lawsuit Against Liquor Store
By Rebecca Waddingham, Greeley Tribune, Colo.
Mar. 9–The family of two siblings killed in a car wreck last year is suing the liquor store that sold beer to the drunken driver who caused the crash.
Olivia and Raul Flores are suing Firestone Liquors, 562 1st Ave. in Firestone, for selling alcohol to Tobias Sholes and Michael Dewey — whom the lawsuit claims were already visibly drunk — on Feb. 8, 2005.
Sholes’ blood-alcohol content was 0.172 after the crash, more than double the legal limit of 0.08.
Last month, Sholes was sentenced to 36 years in prison for causing the crash, which happened about 5 a.m. Feb. 9 on Colo. 52 near Fort Lupton and took the lives of Zuri Flores, 20, and Isai Flores, 24, siblings from Frederick. It was Sholes’ fifth conviction for driving under the influence.
The Floreses’ parents are seeking claims for wrongful death, negligence and “vicarious liability,” which is a standard that says a business that employs someone who commits negligence can also be held liable.
The lawsuit, filed in Weld District Court, names Firestone Liquor Store owners Sylvia and Scott Aberly of Erie and whomever was working the night before the crash.
State law says an alcohol vendor can be liable if it is proven “the licensee willfully or knowingly served any alcohol beverage to such person who was under the age of 21 or who was visibly intoxicated.”
That would be something the family’s attorney, F. Lee Maes, would have to prove in court. The complaint requests a trial by six jurors in Weld District Court.
Maes did not want to comment on the case. The Floreses, who live in Thornton, could not be reached.
Sylvia Aberly said she has not yet received a copy of the lawsuit; she was surprised to hear about it Wednesday and didn’t want to comment.
“It was a horrible, horrible thing that happened,” she said of the crash.
The lawsuit states the sale of alcohol, and Sholes’ consumption of it, were the “direct and proximate cause of the death of Zuri Flores and Isai Flores.”
State law says such lawsuits must be capped at $150,000.
The Aberlys will file a response once they contact a lawyer.
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