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In February, Common Pleas Court Judge Vincent Johnson ordered a Bensalem bar to pay Alexis Meehan $11.6 million for having served her while she was intoxicated.

Meehan, of Bensalem, spent Oct. 22, 2022, drinking with Alyssa Cain, of Levittown, at Pasquale’s Sports Bar & Pizzeria. After they left the bar, Meehan crashed her car on I-95 while trying to merge lanes, according to the complaint.

Both women, in their 20s, suffered significant injuries. The bar never responded to the litigation and the judge awarded the two $44.7 million, with $33 million for Cain.

Pasquale’s Sports Bar & Pizzeria’s liquor license was suspended earlier this year for violations unrelated to the crash, and the bar is currently closed, said Robert Lynch, an attorney with Hoffman, Sternberg, Karpf & Lynch who represents Meehan.

The Inquirer was unable to reach Pasquale’s or its owner based on publicly available contact information.

Both Meehan and Cain are adults who decided to order the drinks and get into the car. But that does not absolve the bar from responsibility under the dram shop law.

The goal of dram shop laws is to protect people, including from themselves, Lynch said. Servers are presumably sober and thus have better judgment than the patrons.

“The bar has the duty of care, even if the person who has been drinking also shares some responsibility,” Lynch said.

jg51 写了： 2025年 7月 11日 23:35 https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelp ... 50710.html