In the current era of Oprah and self-help books, one of the standard concepts for handling tragedy is the idea of “closure”—the notion that the victims must have some sense of getting in the last word before moving on. Usually, that takes the form of wanting to see the perpetrator get his punishment—to see the killer go to jail, or the company that sold a defective product pay a judgment in court. Because this is a society with respect for law, victims often seek closure through the courts, criminal or civil. Such use of the law for therapy is not totally unhealthy when there are clear villains, as in a criminal case.
But what about a case of the unexplainable? What if someone is seeking closure not by pursuing perpetrators, but instead survivors? That may be the case in the wake of the March accident that killed four Brentwood teenagers who were returning from a spring break trip in Florida. Only one of the five friends in the group, Christini Carey, survived the Giles County accident, although she will require lifelong care for her substantial internal injuries.
Now, amid a series of back-and-forth legal pleadings, the mother of one of the deceased girls has filed suit against the Carey family, who owned the 1997 Jeep Cherokee the girls were traveling in, and the Smithson family, whose late daughter Kristen was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident.
Boult, Cummings, Conners, & Berry’s George Nolan, the attorney representing the plaintiff, won’t comment on the lawsuit, but other attorneys who have read the complaint agree that it may go beyond the kind of standard pleading typically filed to sort out insurance-claim issues. Instead, it seems to exacerbate an already tragic circumstance by pointing fingers and seeking damages that could wind up being above and beyond the families’ insurance coverage amounts.
While this lawsuit is not the only one filed in the wake of the tragedy, it does seem to be the one that, at least on its face, goes further than the others. “It’s harsh because there are some allegations in there that may or may not be insurance-compensable type claims,” says Andrew Hoover, the Pulaski, Tenn., attorney representing the Carey family.
The whole situation is complicated by the fact that multiple families are involved. But it is also complicated by Tennessee law, which does not permit a direct action against an insurance company in a situation like this (even though many other states do). Instead, any time there’s a lawsuit filed seeking to trigger insurance damages, the plaintiff always has to name the insured. That makes analyzing these legal maneuverings and understanding the real intent of such lawsuits more difficult.
“Certainly, you can’t sue insurance companies, at least not starting off,” Hoover says, “so you always have to read between the lines as to who’s trying to get what where. It’s our opinion that this is only for insurance purposes, but you know, there again, we have to defend it as [if] it were—and as it states—going after their home and everything they own.”
Diana Dean, the mother of 17-year-old victim Shannon Mannix, filed the suit in Giles County Circuit Court. Unlike some of the other, more straightforward lawsuits filed on behalf of the other various parties, it claims misrepresentation, saying that Lauri Carey, the mother of the only surviving teen, promised Dean that none of the girls would be allowed to drive on the interstate. It also says that Dean was “reluctant to allow Shannon to travel to Florida with the group” but allowed it after such assurances.
“Unbeknownst to Diana Dean, Lauri Carey allowed Carey’s minor daughter...to operate...the Jeep Cherokee on Interstate 65 during their return trip from Florida” and allowed the other girls to ride as passengers. Meanwhile, the suit says, Lauri Carey traveled in a second vehicle with her adult friend, who also went on the trip.
The suit’s other main claim is against the Smithson family, whose late daughter Kristen eventually relieved Carey at the wheel. The Smithsons’ attorney, Nashville lawyer Hugh Howser Jr., did not return repeated phone calls, but the Dean lawsuit says that, “While traveling in the left-hand lane of Interstate 65 North and simultaneously reaching for a CD within the interior of the vehicle, Kristen L. Smithson drove the vehicle outside her lane of travel past the left edge of the roadway and partially into the median. Kristen then overcorrected by quickly steering her vehicle to the right, causing her to lose control...and causing the vehicle to roll several times through the interstate median.”
“I don’t know that that’s what you do to trigger insurance,” Hoover says.
As it stands, a Giles County Circuit Court judge has ordered a Dec. 7 mediation between the parties to try to reach some sort of agreement on the case. Meanwhile, some of the families are trying to get the cases moved to a Williamson County Court.
The real question is: What impact will the litigation have on the two families being targeted in the Dean lawsuit? Could they lose everything they own? Asked whether he thinks that’s possible, Brentwood attorney Charles Flynn, who represents the family of victim Andrea Dierks, says only, “I don’t think I’ll comment on that.”
