A year and a half after a Bergen County, N.J., jury stunned the arena concession industry with a $105 million award to a child paralyzed by a drunken fan — the largest dram shop verdict in U.S. history — an appeals court has reversed.
A three-judge panel on Aug. 31 found multiple trial errors, most markedly the admission of evidence of a “culture of intoxication” at Giants Stadium, where the fan had been served alcohol hours before colliding with the car in which Antonia Verni was riding, leaving her a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic.
