Jake’s bar must disclose amount of payout in drunk driving case, judge rules

A state judge on Friday ruled Jake’s bar in Columbia must disclose how much money is being paid to settle a wrongful death case involving a drunk driver who was at the Five Points bar in Columbia before the deadly crash.

But Judge Thomas “Billy” McGee said he would give lawyers for Jake’s, a well-known bar in Five Points, extra time to add language to the settlement agreement explaining why the still-undisclosed payout will be much larger than the money Jake’s has paid out in previous cases involving deaths.

McGee ruled after The State Media Co. attorney Jay Bender argued during a 40-minute hearing that sealing the agreement would violate the South Carolina Constitution and the state’s system of open courts.

John T. Lay, a lawyer for Jake’s, told the judge that in prior years, the bar has settled similar lawsuits “and has not moved to seal them.”

But, Lay said, “this case is different” because to reveal the sizable amount of the settlement would result in “unnecessary prejudice” and misperceptions about Jake’s.

The settlement is about more than Jake’s and a deceased driver in the case. It also involves other parties and “bad faith allegations,” said Lay.

The still-undisclosed amount to be paid out is large “not because of the acts of Jake’s, but because of the acts of an insurance carrier,” Lay said.

In this case, a drummer who was at Jake’s had clearly ingested alcohol and possibly drugs after he left the Devine Street bar five hours before the fatal crash, Lay said. “There was clearly substantial alcohol that was drunk after he left Jake’s,” Lay said.

McGee suggested that Jake’s lawyers just add some context to the settlement agreement to explain the large payout.

“Can’t you essentially have a narrative of why it’s so much more than the other public settlements of similar cases?” the judge asked. “Isn’t there a way short of sealing it?”

Bender told the judge it seemed the parties wanted to keep the public from knowing that an insurance company was being protected from embarassment by keeping the total amount of the settlement secret.

The case involved the June 10, 2021, death of Charles Kennedy in Greenwood, S.C., that resulted from a head-on collision with a car driven by Jonathan Titus.

Kennedy’s lawsuit alleged that Titus, a drummer in a band at Jake’s, had been “grossly overserved alcohol” at Jake’s on Devine Street, and that had led to the crash.

But attorneys for Jake’s contended that the crash happened five hours after Titus left Jake’s and he drank a considerable amount of alcohol after leaving as well as likely consuming cocaine and marijuana, according to court records..

Previously, Judge McGee had approved the settlement agreement but denied Jakes’ lawyers original motion to seal the amount of the payout. Jakes’ lawyers contested making public the settlement amount. McGee set a hearing, and Bender intervened on behalf of The State Media Co. and the public’s right to know.

After the hearing, Lay emailed a statement to The State newspaper that said in part:

“Jake’s commends the Court and all parties involved for their willingness to work together to craft an alternative solution that allows access to court records while simultaneously permitting Jake’s to paint the full picture of the settlement, which encompasses insurance claims that have nothing to do with Jake’s potential dram shop liability in this matter.

“Jake’s maintains it did nothing wrong and was ready and willing to defend and try this case on its own liability. But, this settlement was driven by claims of insurance liability for bad faith, the insurance carrier’s third-party administrator woeful failures in basic claims handling, and the now partially reformed abysmal dram shop laws which were unfortunately applicable to this case. We are hopeful these laws with be further reformed in the next legislative session.”