A lawsuit filed by relatives of a man hit and killed by a drunken driver two years ago has been settled.
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Darlene D. Brunner and Sharon Anthony, sisters of Michael Blankenbiller and administrators of his estate, filed the lawsuit two years ago against Denise R. Hall and Larry W. Hall, of Maytown, and the Belvedere Inn, 402 N. Queen St., Lancaster. The lawsuit stemmed from a Feb. 11, 2007, incident in which Blankenbiller, biking home along Harrisburg Pike from his job at the Olive Garden, was struck and killed by a vehicle driven by Denise Hall.
The Halls had spent the evening at the Belvedere, celebrating Denise's 50th birthday. Her blood-alcohol level at the time of the crash was more than three times the legal limit, according to police reports. In March 2008, she pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle and was sentenced to three to six years in state prison.
The lawsuit, filed in Lancaster County Court on June 11, 2007, initially asked for a minimum of $100,000 each from three defendants: Denise R. Hall, Larry W. Hall and the Belvedere Inn.
The lawsuit was settled April 7 for a total of $131,000. The Belvedere's attorney, Steven L. Banko Jr., of the Harrisburg firm Margolis Edelstein, declined to say how much each defendant would pay.
However, he said the Belvedere's insurance company decided to settle to avoid additional legal costs.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Blankenbiller's sisters by Reading attorney John J. Speicher, asserted that Denise and Larry Hall both "consumed substantial amounts of alcohol" Feb. 11, 2007, while they ate dinner downstairs at the Belvedere and after they moved to the bar upstairs.
Speicher asserted that Belvedere employees sold liquor to the Halls even after they were "visibly intoxicated," and failed to make sure they had "an alternative way to get home" so neither would have to drive.
Banko, Belvedere's attorney, disputed that last week, saying the restaurant "specifically denies serving alcoholic beverages to Denise and/or Larry Hall when either were visibly intoxicated.
"On the contrary," he said, "Mrs. Hall did not appear intoxicated at any time she was at the Belvedere Inn."
In a phone interview last week, Speicher seemed to concur. "The Belvedere does seem to try to run a responsible operation," he said. "You would think with the amount of alcohol consumed, there would have been witnesses" attesting to Denise Hall's extreme intoxication.
Her blood-alcohol level registered .27 percent. Pennsylvania's legal limit is .08 percent, said Speicher.
"We were left with the opinion that maybe she just wasn't showing it as much," he said.
Paul Lantieri, the attorney representing the Halls, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
In the complaint, Speicher wrote that Larry Hall was isupposed to drive that night, but Denise Hall drove instead, even though, according to Speicher, "she was so drunk she thought she was on Route 30" rather than Harrisburg Pike.
The complaint says that Hall veered off the road onto a grassy shoulder near Plaza Boulevard, near the Olive Garden, about 11:30 p.m. As she pulled back onto the road, Speicher wrote, Hall's 1999 Cadillac Seville struck the back of Blankenbiller's bicycle.
Blankenbiller, 57, was knocked off his bike, struck the windshield of Hall's car, then fell to the pavement. He died at the scene.
In last week's interview, Speicher described Blankenbiller as challenged. He "mentally and emotionally had issues," Speicher said. Blankenbiller "struggled all his life, but finally had found a place for himself," with his job at the Olive Garden and a companion he had met.
When asked if his clients were satisfied with the settlement, Speicher said: "It's hard to ever be satisfied in a case like this."
Gil Smart is associate editor of the Sunday News. E-mail him at gsmart@lnpnews.com, or phone 291-8817.
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