The North Carolina Court of Appeals recently upheld a $40 million verdict, the largest drunken driving verdict in the state’s history, and one that assessed more than half of the compensatory and punitive damages against the owner of the vehicle, who allegedly allowed an intoxicated woman to drive, leading to a fatal crash.
On Aug. 6, the three-judge panel unanimously agreed with the Franklin County Superior Court denying posttrial relief efforts, including a request for a new trial made by the defendants Shemaro Deann Webb and Ladorothy Breanna Foreman. Appellate Chief Judge Chris Dillon denied the defendants’ various challenges to the $40 million jury verdict in favor of the estate of Susan Renee Chappell, the driver of a second vehicle who was killed in a head-on crash on U.S. Route 401 outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. Webb, who was determined to be intoxicated while driving her co-defendant’s car, allegedly attempted to pass a vehicle in a no-passing zone when she collided with Chappell’s car.