© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden
(May 2) – A Dallas jury ruled Monday that the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma should pay nearly $11 million to the families of two victims who died in a charter bus crash in Irving three years ago while on their way to the Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma.
The 12-person jury heard more than two weeks of evidence and deliberated for four days before finding that Choctaw Nation is legally responsible for the charter bus and the actions of its driver. Three people died as a result of the crash and dozens of others in the bus were injured.
“The jury found that officials with the Choctaw Nation made the decisions and set the rules and made the most money from this charter,” says Dallas trial lawyer Frank Branson, who represented one of the two victims’ families in this case.
Lawyers representing the Choctaw Nation say the litigation is far from over and that they believe the verdict will be reversed on appeal.
“The driver of the bus was an employee of Cardinal Coach Lines and the question of whether Cardinal or Choctaw is legally responsible is a question of law – not a question of fact – and should never have been decided by a jury,” says Fee Smith partner Tom Fee, who represented Choctaw in the case.
Branson told jurors that his client, 83-year-old retired seamstress Alice Stanley, boarded the charter bus at the Albertson’s near her home in Bedford on April 11, 2013, to spend a day at the Choctaw Casino playing the penny slots.
“The bus driver told her when she got on the bus that he had been driving buses for many years and had never had an accident and would get them there safely,” Branson said.
Only 11 miles later, the charter bus driver lost control of the bus, swerved across several lanes of traffic and slammed into a concrete barrier, causing the bus to flip over, Branson said.
Stanley was rushed to Parkland Hospital with spinal fractures, multiple rib fractures, extensive lacerations to the face and hands. Her right arm was amputated. Branson said his client was awake and suffered immeasurable pain for the 10 days from the crash until she died.
The jury awarded $4.9 million to Stanley’s family.
The jury also awarded $6 million to the family of 69-year-old Paula Hahn, a retired Fort Worth city employee and single mother of four, who was thrown from the bus during the crash.
Chip Booker and Debbie Branson also represented Stanley in the trial. Hahn was represented by Spencer Browne, a partner at the Dallas trial firm Reyes Browne Reilley.
There are five additional cases involving other victims from the crash that are set for trial later this year.
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