Coors Drunk-Driving Lawsuit Dropped June 10, 2004
News Summary
A Reno, Nev., lawyer has dropped a lawsuit against Coors Brewing Co. that sought to hold the brewer responsible for the death of a young man who was driving drunk, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported June 2.Ken McKenna decided to drop the lawsuit filed on behalf of Jodie Pisco after a lawyer for Coors threatened to seek sanctions for filing frivolous litigation.
Pisco's son, Ryan, 19, drove his girlfriend's car into stop-light pole at 90 mph after leaving a party. A Coors beer carton was found in the car.
The lawsuit claimed that Coors was liable for the teenager's death because it promotes underage drinking and illegal alcohol consumption at sporting events. The suit challenged Nevada law, which protects alcohol providers from being sued. McKenna was hoping the state law would be addressed at the Supreme Court level.
"After doing some research, we decided that the Supreme Court is unlikely to be inclined politically to overturn the protection for alcohol distributors," McKenna said.
He added that Pisco also took legal action to bring awareness to the problem of underage drinking. "Her motivation all along was to shed some light on the fact that alcohol companies do, in fact, advertise their products to minors," McKenna said.
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