WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A former exotic dancer seriously injured in a 2010 car crash with an off-duty Massachusetts police officer has been paid about $8.6 million by the insurance company for the strip club, according to court records.
Kailee Higgins was paid by Capitol Specialty Insurance, her attorneys wrote in an Aug. 19 filing in U.S. District Court in Worcester, The Telegram & Gazette reported Tuesday.
The payment comes 17 months after a federal judge ruled following a trial that the insurance company broke the law by shoddily investigating the crash and denying Higgins compensation for years.
The crash occurred in Worcester on Nov. 28, 2010. Higgins, who required more than 10 facial surgeries and was left with a diminished mental capacity, had a blood alcohol level of .15, according to records.
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Higgins, 20 at the time, sued, alleging the Centerfolds club in Worcester served her as many as 15 shots that night and was liable for serving her and then letting her drive drunk.
The judge found that Capitol and its senior claims manager conducted a superficial investigation into the crash.
An email from the newspaper to lawyers representing Capitol went unanswered.
The off-duty officer was not charged.
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last commentI'm not especially inclined to be very sympathetic towards cops these days, but if she was the one driving drunk, I'm puzzled as to why anyone would think the cop, off duty or otherwise, should have been charged, unless the accident was somehow his/her fault, which isn't mentioned here.
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It wasn't the cops fault. The T+G is owned by the NYT so they have an agenda. She was a 21 year old dancer and the club over served her, when they shouldn't have served her at all. Minuscule sized club with one bartender and waitress. Its impossible to not know what everyone in the club is drinking. Liquor Liability case, but bad faith in settling a case is illegal under mgl 176D, which makes it a consumer law violation under 93A subject to treble damagaes plus attorney's fees. Statutory Judgment interest here is 12% per annum. The trial before the Judge was solely on the 176D issue.
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The off duty cop was extra information. The strip club's insurance company paid the damages according to what shadowcat posted from the article.
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If the insurance company just did their job in good faith and came to a fair decision it would never of reached this point. The damages would have been limited to what skibum mentioned and wouldn't have come remotely near $8 million.
Instead the insurance company tried to save money by not properly investigating and just ruling against the stripper for whatever reason. Hopefully this will at least make some insurers think twice about their shady practices, but I doubt it will stop them.
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So a 21 year old girl has no responsibility at all and shes the victim for driving drunk and getting in an accident? Water is wet?
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Bank error in your favor. Collect $8 Million.
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Chess. She was 20.
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It's shit like this that makes me glad that I'm not in MA. These nanny state dram shop laws forcing the club to be responsible for a dancer's bad choices. Now every bar in that shit ass state is going to be running scared.
Thank goodness for more enlightened states like FL.
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Diminished mental capacity? Seems like a reason to become a stripper. Oh - she was a stripper already?
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Any bar serving anyone underage should be sued out of existence. Why anyone would think a bar violating the law is ok is mind boggling. The bartender served an underage person; they got drunk; got in an accident; foreseeable; tough shit for the fucking bar.
Cash she suffered a serious head injury, in many ways its worse than dying for the person and their extended family. My step-daughter's head injury ended every single plan my wife and I ever had; forever. It controls where we live; where we work; where we will retire; when we will retire and when and where we vacation; ruins every holiday; etc.
You get wonderful memories of going to watch her in a coma for 6 months; 3 years of rehab; and 24 and counting years of assisted 24 hour a day care/living. The "best" part was waiting 5 years for her to learn finger language and having her first complete sentence to her Mom be: "please kill me". That's diminished mental capacity.
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Skibum609 I’m very sorry to hear of the injury suffered by your step daughter. That is awful. It must be painful for you and your wife each day.
I apologize for my crude attempt at humor. I was out of line.
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A fellow firefighter my father worked with had his 19 year old son killed in a crash after he and his friend were served underage and obviously inebriated at a now long closed establishment in Quincy.
Totally unnecessary, totally preventable, and the subsequent dram shop verdict against the establishment was totally deserved, as was this one.
Skibum - sorry to hear of what you and the wife have gone through with your stepdaughter. I'm sure it has been unimaginable hell.
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She is old enough to vote, old enough to die for her country and old enough to assume legal obligations and old enough to get naked and be groped by men for a living. She is old enough to live with the consequences of her own actions. This moronic perspective that leads to a girl cashing in for something she did to herself is mind numbing.
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Ty Cross. Step Daughter believes she has a great life and that's all that matters. Ad far as bad shit? Wife and I learned long ago that sometimes you're the "other guy". Dig deep enough into anyone's life and most have similar stories.
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Ski - True that. Figured that out when my mother died of pancreatic cancer. Sometimes there is no why, things happen because they happen and you either find a way to live with it, or you don't.
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So Rick we don't need laws? Bars don't have to follow laws ?
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@Skibum
I’m sure that’s got to be rough I couldn’t imagine my life if I had a tragedy like that, the well being of my children is the only thing that ever really made me worry as an adult
Kudos on
If to both you and your wife for being strong enough to deal with such an issue hope you never again have to deal with such a pain
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===> "So Rick we don't need laws? Bars don't have to follow laws ?"
Sane laws sure. But that description doesn't apply to Nanny State dram shop laws. It's neither desirable nor practical to force bartenders and waitresses to become babysitters. The primary beneficiaries of those laws are insurance companies, who have doubtlessly ratcheted up liability premiums after that award, and civil litigation attorneys.
Nor has it ever made much sense to me that a girl could be old enough to vote, die for her country, assume legal obligations and have grown men try to stick two fingers up her ass in a VIP, but not be allowed to have a drink.
What happened in this case was a shame for sure. But she did it to herself. Yes the bar was not supposed to serve her, but it's not like she was 15 either. She was a 20 year old woman getting naked on the stage. This shit is really getting out of hand now. Thank goodness for saner states like FL.
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