Mohegan Casino and Hotel in Uncasville. Photo: Ritu Manoj Jethani/Shutterstock.com
A Pennsylvania couple, injured on a Connecticut highway after a motorist driving a casino-owned limousine struck their vehicle, has settled the case for $110,000.
Brian and Michele Lewis' lawsuit against limo driver William Clarke went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which voted 8-0 in April 2017 to overturn a Connecticut Supreme Court ruling.
The Connecticut Supreme Court had ruled 7-0 in March 2016 that since Clarke had been driving a Mohegan Casino and Hotel limo when he struck the Lewis' vehicle, he was immune from liability. The Connecticut justices allowed the defense to invoke tribal sovereign immunity, even though Clarke's limo was not on the reservation in 2011 when it struck the Lewis' vehicle.
The U.S. Supreme Court, however, ruled the real target of the personal injury suit was Clarke and not the tribe or tribal office, leaving the door open for the suit against Clarke. It remanded the case to Connecticut's Superior Court.
But the two sides settled Thursday before any further proceedings.
Federal courts have cited the case more than 50 times in the past two years, according to James Harrington, the Waterford-based attorney with Polito and Associates who is representing the Lewis family.
Representing Mohegan Sun, one of two Connecticut casinos located near the Rhode Island border, is Robert Rhodes of Westport-based Halloran & Sage. Rhodes did not respond to a request for comment Monday, but the casino has not wavered in court papers since 2011 that Clarke was a tribal casino employee in a casino-owned vehicle and therefore had tribal sovereign immunity.
Meanwhile, Harrington said Brian Lewis suffered a head injury in the crash and his wife had facial and nasal fractures. The couple has since healed from the injuries, Harrington said.
"In my view, if Mohegan had looked at the case from the perspective of what was right and wrong, the case could have been settled eight years ago," Harrington said. "Instead, Mohegan really tried to use the case to enhance its already very strong sovereign immunity position. Ironically, they ended up diminishing it."
Harrington said his clients only wanted to be treated like anyone else who was the victim of a car crash that wasn't their fault.
"What we always asked for and was looking for was for the Lewises to be treated the same way anyone else would have been treated," Harrington said. "I think, now, the pendulum has swung back to where there is more fairness in the system."
The casino, Harrington said, made no real offer to the Lewis family until 2017, six years after the incident. "It was a very modest offer. It was much less than $100,000."
Harrington said the Lewis family, who will be getting the settlement money within 30 days, is "very pleased with the settlement."
He added, "It's been a long, long road."
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