$8.62 Million Settlement After Former UNC Student Drove Wrong-Way on I-85, Killing Three

Shortly before 3 a.m. on July 19, 2015, Chandler Kania drove his car northbound in the southbound lanes of Interstate 85 near Exit 163 outside Hillsborough, North Carolina. He collided head-on with a vehicle carrying Felecia Harris, 49, her friend Darlene McGee, 46, and Harris's six-year-old granddaughter Jahnice Beard. All three died. Harris's nine-year-old daughter, Jahnia King, survived with serious injuries. Investigators measured Kania's blood-alcohol content at 0.17, more than twice the legal limit, and found marijuana in his system as well. He was 20 years old, making any alcohol consumption illegal under North Carolina law. Kania ultimately pleaded guilty and was sentenced to up to 16 years in prison on three counts of felony death by motor vehicle and related charges.

Civil litigation began soon after the criminal case. Attorneys for the victims' families filed suit against Kania, his parents, two Chapel Hill bars (He's Not Here and La Residence), and, after additional investigation, the Delta chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity at UNC, individual fraternity members, and other parties who had supplied alcohol and marijuana to Kania throughout the preceding day and night. By the time the case was set for trial, the complaint named 19 defendants across multiple theories: dram-shop liability against the bars, negligent supervision against the fraternity, and direct negligence against Kania himself.

Shawn Howard of Maginnis Howard, working alongside co-counsel from Edwards Kirby, Charles Monnett and Associates, and Oxendine Barnes and Associates, built the case for the plaintiffs. The key factual argument was that Kania had consumed alcohol and marijuana for roughly 15 to 16 consecutive hours with the knowledge and participation of the fraternity and its members before the bars served him further, and that each link in that chain shared responsibility for what happened on the interstate.

One month before the scheduled trial date, 18 of the 19 defendants agreed to settle. The combined settlement totaled $8.62 million. NC Lawyers Weekly listed it among North Carolina's top verdicts and settlements for 2018, ranking it eighth for the year. The confidentiality agreement sealed the breakdown of the individual amounts, though one component, a payment to a minor beneficiary, remained in the public record. One defendant did not participate in the settlement; the outcome of any remaining claims against that party was not publicly disclosed.

Jahnice Beard was six years old when she died. Her grandmother, Felecia Harris, died in the same collision, along with Harris's friend Darlene McGee. The $8.62 million settlement was the largest civil resolution reported from the crash.