Two Cousins Killed in Drunk-Driving Crash; Bars and Driver Pay $7.36 Million
Won by Kenneth Berger.
A 21-year-old driver who was overserved at two Spartanburg bars struck and killed two cousins at over 70 mph, leading to a $7.36 million wrongful death settlement paid by the bars and the driver.
What happened
On the night of February 5, 2021, a 21-year-old man named William Shetley spent hours drinking at three Spartanburg establishments before getting behind the wheel of his Dodge pickup truck. He started the evening at a bar where he drank two beers with coworkers, then moved to RJ Rockers and later Main Street Pub, where bartenders continued to serve him liquor, beer, and whiskey.
As Shetley sped down Mount Zion Road late that night, he crossed into oncoming lanes and slammed into a Chevrolet pickup at more than 70 mph. The truck was backing into a private driveway. Timothy Jennings, 44, and Christopher Jennings, 38, were killed in the collision. Timothy left a wife and five children. Christopher left a wife and three children. Shetley was arrested and charged with two counts of felony DUI resulting in death.
The families retained Kenneth Berger along with co-counsel Brad Lanford, Toyya Brawley Gray, and Stanley Myers. The legal team pursued not only Shetley but also RJ Rockers and Main Street Pub under South Carolina dram shop law, which makes licensed alcohol vendors liable when they serve visibly intoxicated patrons who then cause harm.
Depositions of bartenders from both bars proved central to the case. One bartender admitted he did not know whether serving an intoxicated patron was illegal. Another could not describe basic rules for responsible alcohol service or explain the significance of alcohol proof. A forensic toxicologist, Dr. David Eagerton, testified about Shetley's level of intoxication at the time of the crash.
On June 30, 2022, the case settled for $7,360,000. Hanover Insurance covered RJ Rockers, Cincinnati Insurance covered Main Street Pub, and Progressive Insurance covered Shetley. The settlement represented full policy limits from both bars. The case, filed as Jennings v. RJ Rockers et al., was heard in Spartanburg County Circuit Court before Judge Grace Knie.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
More proven verdicts from Kenneth Berger
All Kenneth Berger proven verdicts →Kenneth Berger secured a $26 million settlement for the family of a three-year-old who suffered severe chemical burns at Caribbean Resort and Villas in Myrtle Beach after a pool employee falsified chlorine records for years.
Travis Butler, 19, was driving to work in January 2016 when a drunk driver crossed the center line and hit him head-on, leaving him with seven broken bones, a liver laceration and seven surgeries. His dram shop suit against the driver and Hickory Tavern in Columbia settled for $3 million in January 2019. The driver had pleaded guilty to DUI resulting in great bodily injury.
Douglas Mincey, a retired engineer and author, was rear-ended on I-95 in Jasper County in March 2016 by a driver who had been drinking. He had a lower back injury that required several surgeries and concussive symptoms. His underinsured motorist carrier, USAA, agreed to pay $2 million on April 6, 2018, before the case reached the jury roster.
A Navy veteran who was sent home from the Charleston VA with back pain developed a spinal epidural abscess that went untreated for days, leaving him permanently paralyzed in both legs; the Law Office of Kenneth E. Berger recovered a $1 million federal settlement.
Related wrongful death verdicts
In December 2011, a Fayette County, Texas jury awarded the family of an 8-year-old Splendora boy $150.37 billion after he was doused with gasoline and set on fire by a 13-year-old neighbor in 1998, two weeks after the same neighbor sexually assaulted him. The boy survived third-degree burns over 99 percent of his body for nearly 13 years before dying in April 2011 of a skin cancer linked to his injuries. The defendant, Don Wilburn Collins, never appeared to answer the civil suit, and the jury awarded $370 million in actual damages plus roughly $150 billion in punitive damages, the largest civil verdict in U.S. history. Attorney Craig Sico, who represented the family, said from the outset that the judgment was not collectible and was intended to pressure prosecutors into reopening the long-dormant criminal case. Prosecutors did reopen the case, and Collins was later convicted of capital murder in a separate criminal proceeding.
A Pensacola jury awarded Cynthia Robinson $23.6 billion in punitive damages against R.J. Reynolds over the 1996 lung cancer death of her 36-year-old husband, the largest single-plaintiff award of Florida's Engle tobacco litigation, but the trial judge called the number constitutionally excessive, an appeals court ordered a full retrial over improper closing arguments, and a second jury returned a complete defense verdict in 2019, so the estate ultimately collected nothing.
Frantz Law Group, representing roughly 5,000 victims, helped negotiate a $13.5 billion PG&E bankruptcy settlement covering tens of thousands of survivors and families from the 2015 Butte, 2017 North Bay, and 2018 Camp wildfires.