A New Hampshire company settled two lawsuits stemming from fatal accident at a music festival in West Virginia.
U.S. District Judge Irene Keeley approved National Event Services’ settlements with Yen Ton and Elizabeth Rose Doran last week.
Ton, 21 years old, and Doran were injured during the 2011 All Good Music Festival when a pick-up truck slid down a hillside and plowed into the tent where they were sleeping. Their friend, Nicole Miller, was killed. All three were from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
National Event Services was a subcontractor for the festival.
The Associated Press reported that two other defendants, M & M Parking Inc. of Pennsylvania and Event Staffing Inc. of Virginia, were dismissed from the cases.
Ton and Doran reached settlements with several other defendants last year.
The family of Nicole Miller will get about $570,000 from lawsuit settlements approved by the federal judge.
U.S. District Judge Keeley approved agreements Monday that also pay Kim Miller’s lawyers’ fees.
The judge called the deals with the driver of the pick-up, Clay Lewin of Cape Charles, Virginia, and other parties “fair and reasonable.”
Miller also settled claims against James Tobin Productions.
The AP says Ton and Doran get $100,000 each under the Lewin deal, as well as $150,000 from Tobin’s insurers.
A 27-year-old man was paralyzed from the chest down during the festival and is suing organizers and a security company he blames for his injuries.
Daniel Weaver of Hudson, New York, sued Marvin’s Mountaintop LLC, Maryland-based Walther Productions and Event Staffing Inc. of Norfolk, Virginia, this week in U.S. District Court in Clarksburg.
The AP says that Weaver ran naked through the festival grounds near Masontown, and staff chased him into the woods. He then jumped into a swampy area, where employees found him lying down.
Weaver claims that Event Staffing employees forced him to his feet, carried him by his arms and legs, and then deliberately dropped him.
He says the employees should have determined whether he was injured prior to moving him.
The defendants had not responded as of Thursday.
Nicole Miller’s father will try to settle his lawsuit against eight of the defendants.
A court filing by Kim Miller, the mother of Nicole, says mediation will begin June 4th. Other defendants are welcome to participate.
Miller’s lawsuit and two others filed after the July 2011 accident near Masontown are to be tried together in federal court in Clarksburg in August.
The lawsuits target a dozen parties, including the driver of the pick-up, Clay Lewin of Cape Charles, Virginia, Maryland-based Walther Productions and its president, Tim Walther, and Marvin Huggins, the owner of Marvin’s Mountaintop LLC, and security and parking companies. They are accused of negligence.
It was estimated that about 30,000 people attended the 15th annual All Good Festival, which was held from Thursday through Saturday.
Feel free to contact one of our Gacovino Lake attorneys at 1-800-246-HURT (4878).
