Newsroom - December 2008

Parker Hudson achieved an outstanding settlement result for a bank client in a wrongful death case that had garnered significant press coverage and public attention. Tragically, on the morning of September 12, 2005, a violent criminal forcefully abducted a young mother from a shopping center several miles away from a bank branch, initiating a random and unlikely chain of events that ultimately resulted in the death of both the victim and her abductor. The criminal forced the victim, who was not a bank customer, to drive her SUV to an ATM (with no history of crimes) during banking hours and withdraw money while he hid in the backseat. The victim and criminal subsequently drove away and, in the following minutes, the victim drove at high speeds, attempted to escape, and was shot by her abductor who then took control of the vehicle and crashed into a cement mixer while swerving left at an intersection several miles away - a crash which killed the victim. The criminal escaped the crash, but was shot dead by a good Samaritan who had witnessed the struggle.

The victim’s family sued several entities, including our bank client, and pursued a novel theory against our client based on the lack of a “panic button” or other safety device on the bank's ATMs. Both the facts of the case and the legal attack on our client's ATMs made a successful defense of the case a priority for our client. After two years of litigation and an emotional mediation, Parker Hudson obtained a very advantageous settlement for our client.

Bill Holley, Melissa Ewing, Julie Wood, Melissa Burton, and Whitney Taylor all contributed to this outstanding result for our client.