By Kathryn Thier, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.
Mar. 14–The families of two Lincoln County cousins killed two years ago in a drunken-driving wreck outside Birkdale Village have settled a wrongful-death lawsuit with the corporate parent of the bar that served the intoxicated driver.
The settlement announced in Mecklenburg County Civil Court Monday morning stipulates that Firefly Five Inc. will pay $850,000 to the families of the dead women, Sally McKenzie Clark and Anna Grace Jordan, and to a third teen, Suzanne Paige Kessler, who survived the wreck.
The money will be divided equally among the three groups.
Firefly Five was the owner of the former Graduate Food and Pub in Cornelius, where David Scott Shimp drank excessively for hours before the crash.
Shimp pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder of the two teenagers and was sentenced to at least 13 years in prison.
Clark’s father David Clark, who filed the lawsuit with Jordan’s mother, said he hopes the settlement sends a message to bars and restaurants that they are responsible for their patrons’ drinking.
The evening the bar served Shimp, it “loaded the gun,” Clark said. “Mr. Shimp simply pulled the trigger.”
Clark said the families feel “no joy or happiness in the outcome” of the settlement, but feel comforted that the pub was held accountable.
“Never again in this life will I see Sally’s beautiful smile, share with her our mutual love of Carolina basketball or attend a country music concert with her and (Anna) Grace, or hear Grace’s voice call ‘Uncle David,’ ” Clark said.
The cousins were 19 when they died. Sally Clark was from Iron Station and a freshman at Peace College in Raleigh. Jordan was from Denver and a freshman at N.C. State.
An attorney for Firefly Five said his clients don’t admit liability, even though they settled the suit.
“I think everyone’s glad the case is over,” said Dayle Flammia of Raleigh, Firefly Five’s attorney. “We feel really badly for the families involved and our thoughts are still with them.”
David Clark said the settlement amount was “inconsequential” to his family, except as a means to hold Firefly Five accountable and close the pub down. Court documents show Shimp drank six pints of beer and three liquor drinks in less than two hours at The Graduate.
The pub later closed, but not because of the lawsuit, Flammia said. The Graduate currently located in Cornelius is under different ownership.
Clark said his family will donate its share of the settlement, about $283,000, to a new YMCA they plan to build in East Lincoln called Sally’s Y.
“Sally’s life was about faith,” he said, touching the silver Christian fish bracelet of hers on his wrist.
“I’ll wear it forever,” he said.
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