Top Plaintiff's Verdict by Dollar: Jordan et al. v. TGI Friday's Inc. et al., $40 Million

Wrongful death

Riverside County

Superior Court Judge Sunshine S. Sykes

Plaintiffs' lawyers: Carpenter, Zuckerman & Rowley LLP, Nicholas C. Rowley; Bruno Nalu, Keith J. Bruno, Angela E. Bruno

Defense lawyers: Bradley & Gmelich, Thomas P. Gmelich; Rodriguez & King, Stephen A. King; Law Office of Larry N. Willis, Larry N. Willis

The wrongful death suit in a stabbing death at a Riverside TGI Friday's restaurant centered on plaintiffs' claims that the casual eatery deliberately served alcohol to underage drinkers.

The victim was 33; his assailant was 20, a year under the legal drinking age. A Riverside County Superior Court jury awarded the victim's parents $40 million, a sum said to be the largest civil award in county history. Key to the plaintiffs' case was proof that the restaurant furnished drinks to an already intoxicated man.

That was essential to the case, said plaintiffs' attorney Nicholas C. Rowley of Carpenter, Zuckerman & Rowley LLP, who represented the victim's mother at trial, because California law gives legal immunity to bars and restaurants who serve alcohol to minors except when they are obviously drunk.

"We were able to prove that [the assailant] was already intoxicated when they served him," Rowley said, adding that evidence showed the man ordered multiple rounds of alcoholic beverages in 30 minutes. Jordan v. TGI Friday's Inc. et al., RIC-1100955 (Riverside County Sup. Ct., filed Jan. 24, 2011).

Rowley and co-counsel Keith Bruno of Bruno Nalu, representing the victim's father, produced evidence from a head bartender at the restaurant that TGI Friday's and its parent Briad Restaurant Group LLC had a policy of not carding minors in order to increase profits on Fridays and Saturdays.

After the big verdict was returned in June, Bruno said he spoke with jurors. "They were appalled by what was going on at the TGI Friday's and they wanted their verdict to reflect the value of life in Riverside County," Bruno said.

- John Roemer