Sober Living Van Fire on I-85 Ends in $162 Million Settlement

On the evening of April 24, 2021, a van carrying 16 women from We Are Living Proof, an addiction recovery program, was headed north on I-85 toward the I-985 split in Gwinnett County. Police said a vehicle ahead changed lanes abruptly, and the van's driver, Monica Manire, lost control. The 2002 Dodge Ram rolled onto its side, slid across two lanes, struck a guardrail, and caught fire.

Six women died at the scene: Normisha Monroe, 38; Alishia Carroll, 34; Kristie Whitfield, 44; Ashleigh Paris, 26; Tina Rice, 53; and Rose Patrick, 34. A seventh, Heidi Lesley, 48, died of her injuries two weeks later. Bystanders stopped on the interstate and helped pull survivors from the burning wreckage before first responders arrived; the survivors were rushed to metro Atlanta hospitals.

Families of the women who died and several of the survivors sued Manire, the group home, Chrysler and its parent company Stellantis, and the businesses that had serviced the van, a Peachtree Corners Pep Boys and a Lawrenceville tire shop. The lawsuits argued the 15-passenger van had a dangerous and unstable design that made it prone to tipping, a steering system that was faulty by design, and a fuel system that allowed gasoline and vapors to ignite once the vehicle came to rest. Alan Hamilton, co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs, put it plainly: 'This was a relatively minor tip-over. Everyone should have walked away. It's a tragedy that due to the vehicle's design, these women were trapped in a fiery inferno.'

Thirteen law firms represented the sixteen plaintiffs, split among wrongful-death and injury claims. Beasley Allen represented five wrongful-death families and four injury claimants, and Shiver Hamilton Campbell represented two wrongful-death families and four injury claimants. Alan Hamilton of Shiver Hamilton Campbell described himself as co-lead counsel. The other firms were Bader Scott, Butler Kahn, John Foy and Associates, Gary Martin Hays and Associates, The Koehler Firm, McDonald and Cody, Morgan and Morgan, Scott Pryor Law Group, The Roth Firm, Mike T. Sterling and Associates, and Studstill Firm. Chris Glover, managing attorney of Beasley Allen's Atlanta office, said the hardest part was untangling responsibility among several defendants.

The case never went to trial. In June 2024, the parties reached a combined settlement of $162,000,000, which lawyers and local reporters described as the largest settlement arising from a single-vehicle crash in Georgia's history. As is standard in a pretrial settlement, the defendants did not admit liability. How the total was divided among the sixteen plaintiffs, the defendants, and the roughly dozen firms involved was not disclosed.

Chris Glover said the hardest part of the case was untangling responsibility among several defendants: 'It was very easy for them to point fingers at each other and avoid responsibility for themselves, and so negotiating that dilemma for our clients was the hardest part of the case.' The settlement closed the case for all sixteen plaintiffs without a jury ever hearing the evidence on the van's design.