First liability settlement approved for injured teen in Couch case (The Affluenza Kid)
Last edited Tue May 6, 2014, 01:34 PM - Edit history (1)
FORT WORTH — The family of a seriously injured teenage boy has reached a settlement of more than $2 million with the family of a teenager who was driving a speeding pickup last year when it started a chain reaction of collisions, killing four people and injuring 12.
Maria Lemus and Sergio Molina sued the family of Ethan Couch of Fort Worth on behalf of their son, Sergio Molina, saying that his injuries from the wreck have left him unable to do anything more than blink his eyes.
Sergio Molina was riding in the bed of Couch’s pickup the night of June 15, 2013, when the pickup swerved in the 1500 block of Burleson-Retta Road in southern Tarrant County, hitting a stranded motorist and three people who had stopped to help her. The pickup also plowed into a parked car, sending it into a Volkswagen Beetle driving in the opposite direction. Couch’s pickup flipped and smashed into a tree.
-snip-
In the settlement reached Friday in 96th state District Court, Fred and Tonya Couch’s liability insurer agreed to pay $1.638 million cash to the Sergio E. Molina Special Needs Trust. The Couches’ insurer also agreed to purchase two sets of annuities to provide payments to the trust, beginning in July, of $1,515 monthly and of $1,837 monthly, both for life and guaranteed for 25 years.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/05/05/5794503/first-liability-settlement-approved.html#storylink=cpy
ETA: I ran across this article that indicates that Couch's parents will only pay a miniscule amount for his rehabilitation "treatment":
http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/25225319/ethan-couchs-parents-will-pay-a-fraction-of-rehab-cost
= new reply since forum marked as read
I wonder what the actual policy limits were for the insurance policy that the parents purchased? My guess is that it was probably only a $100K/$300K policy, so the insurer got the shaft.
I looked into Wikipedia on Ethan Couch and saw this surprising paragraph:
G. Dick Miller, a psychologist hired as an expert by the defense, testified in court that the teen was a product of affluenza and was unable to link his bad behavior with consequences due to his parents teaching him that wealth buys privilege. The rehabilitation facility near Newport Beach, California that the teen was expected to attend would cost his family approximately $500,000 annually. However, he was sentenced to a state facility which requires the family to only pay $1100 per month for a $750 per day facility, leaving tax payers to pay the remaining bill for his therapy. The facility offers a 90-day treatment program that includes horse riding, mixed martial arts, massage and cookery, a swimming pool, basketball and six acres of land. At least one relative of the crash victims has complained of the lightness of Couch's sentence and that Couch had expressed no remorse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Couch
