Choctaw Nation will appeal if judge OKs jury judgment, lawyer says

A day after a Dallas County jury said the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma should pay $11 million to the families of two Tarrant County women killed in a bus crash, the defendant’s lawyer told the Star-Telegram if the judge signs off on the verdict, the Choctaw Nation will appeal, which could take years to settle.

Tom Fee, the Choctaw Nation’s lead counsel, said Cardinal Coach Line and one of its former drivers are legally liable for a 2013 charter bus crash involving 45 elderly passengers on the way to the Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, Okla.

Three women were killed and 15 were hospitalized in serious condition after the bus, which was northbound on the President George Bush Turnpike, veered into guard barrels, swerved across multiple lanes, hit a concrete barrier and flipped over on its side, according to the lawsuit.

The families of Paula Hahn, 69, of Fort Worth and Alice Stanley, 83, of North Richland Hills should receive $6 million and $4.9 million respectively, according to the jury verdict.

Witnesses testified last week that bus driver Loyd Rieve, now 68, of Dallas, was distracted before the crash when Sue Taylor, the woman who organized the trip, was speaking with him about whether to take the tollway, according to the plaintiffs attorneys.

Taylor, known as “Casino Sue,” 81, of Hurst, was also killed in the crash. Her lawyer did not return a message seeking comment on Tuesday.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys argued that the Native American tribe was responsible for the “negligence” of Taylor, Cardinal Coach Line and Rieve, who were acting as agents for the Choctaw Nation but were not reasonably trained and supervised to enforce passenger safety on the charter bus they hired to bring elderly gamblers to their casino.

The jury’s verdict essentially agreed with that.

10 minutes and 10 days of suffering

Hahn was partially ejected from the bus and then crushed under it, Spencer Browne, the family’s Dallas-based attorney said Tuesday.

The Fort Worth woman survived for about 10 minutes while she, with the help of a passerby, struggled to break free.

“It was truly 10 minutes of torture,” Browne said.

The Dallas County medical examiner ruled that Hahn died of multiple blunt force trauma and positional asphyxia, which means the position of her body interfered with her ability to breathe.

The Choctaw Nation offered the family a $25,000 settlement before the trial, Browne said.

He said he was surprised to learn his client was offered half of what Choctaw Nation’s attorneys offered the family of Stanley, who died at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas 10 days after the crash.

She died from complications of blunt force trauma, the family’s lawsuit stated.

“She was awake, alert, able to interact, and experiencing pain during most of the 10-day period that she was in Parkland before her death,” according to the suit.

Dallas attorney Frank Branson represented Stanley’s family, to whom the Choctaw Nation offered $50,000 to settle before trial.

Tom Fee, Choctaw Nation’s Dallas-based attorney, told the Star-Telegram Tuesday that he doesn’t believe the jury’s verdict will hold up in court, even if the judge signs off on it.

“The case should have never gone to the jury,” Fee said.

He said the legal interpretation of liability is something a judge should decide, not the jury.

Both sides believe state District Judge Carl Ginsberg could have a response by the end of the month.

The state will side with whom?

In assessing responsibility for the crash, jurors assigned 25 percent to Choctaw Nation, 58 percent to Rieve and 17 percent to Cardinal Coach Line.

Spence said that was just one question. Taken together, answers to all 11 questions that jurors had to answer found the tribe 100 percent liable in regard to negligence.

Fee said the families settled with Cardinal Coach Line years ago. The company had $5 million worth of insurance that was split up between all 45 people on the bus — including the driver, according to Hahn’s attorney.

The Mansfield-based bus company filed for bankruptcy in 2014.

Fee said if the judge agrees with the jury, Choctaw Nation will appeal, and the appellate court will side with them.

“It is Cardinal’s bus and Cardinal’s driver,” Fee said of Cardinal Coach Line. “Legally, the accident was caused by driver error, and that driver was an employee of Cardinal.”

The North Texas Tollway Authority sued Cardinal Coach Line in June 2014 in Dallas County, alleging that Rieve and the charter bus company were negligent. The agency asked for $100,000 in damages for repairs to the tollway and other losses.

The outcome of the case could not be learned Tuesday, but a spokesman for the NTTA said a lawsuit that was filed against Rieve had since been dropped as a “practical matter.”

This story was originally published May 3, 2016 at 9:56 PM with the headline "Choctaw Nation will appeal if judge OKs jury judgment, lawyer says."