Chicago DUI attorney comments on paying the consequences of a DUI when the company isn't charged with a DUI

This Chicago DUI attorney has posted on Diamonds Gentleman’s Clubs Dram Shop DUI woes here and here.

You may recall that this Gentleman’s Club serves no alcohol.  It does serve cups, ice, and mixers for alcoholic beverages.  In this particular case, a patron was kicked out of the club and after being given the keys to his car was in a tragic accident that left others dead.  The families of the deceased sued.  They sued the driver, but of greater import they sued the club the driver was last at prior to the accident.

From chicagobreakingnews.com:

A lawsuit against a West Chicago strip club, filed after two men left the establishment and then got into a drunken driving crash that killed one of them along with a pregnant woman and her unborn child, has been settled for $1 million, court records show.

Diamond's Gentlemen's Club paid $800,000 to the husband of April Simmons. The 27-year-old woman was eight months pregnant when a vehicle driven by John Homatas ran head-on into her SUV on Illinois Route 25 near South Elgin in January 2006.

The rest of the settlement went to the family of John Chiariello, 25, of St. Charles, who was riding in Homatas' car. 

Homatas and Chiariello had gotten drunk at the club and were ejected by bouncers when Homatas was found vomiting in a bathroom, the suit alleged. Diamond's employees then put Homatas in his car, and he and Chiariello drove off, running into the Yorkville woman's car about 15 minutes later.

The club does not serve alcohol, but patrons are allowed to bring in liquor. Because of those circumstances, Diamond's argued that it was not responsible for Homatas' actions. But the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in March that the club bore some accountability for the accident.

Do you think this decision will be limited to clubs that don’t serve alcohol?