Larry Joe Sillaway, as personal representative of the Estate of Larry James Gray Sillaway, deceased; and Dawn Marie Edgerton v. Brandon Crossroads Bowl, Inc. d/b/a Brandon Crossroads Bowl; and Boje Enterprises, Inc.
In a dram shop case under section 768.125, the Second DCA affirmed dismissal with prejudice of an amended complaint that swapped the identity of the intoxicated driver, holding the amendment did not relate back under rule 1.190(c) because it rested on a brand new factual narrative rather than a supplement to the original one. The court distinguished the medical-negligence relation-back line (Cinque and Maraj) on the ground that dram shop liability under section 768.125 is derivative rather than vicarious, so changing the driver also changed the core allegation of what the vendor knew. It alternatively affirmed on the independent ground that the eight-year-delayed amendment would have unfairly prejudiced the defendant given lost evidence and the death of a key witness.
Key facts
- On August 10, 2014, Andrew Connell, Sam Meredith, and Jesus Ronduelas drank heavily at Brandon Crossroads Bowl; shortly after they left, a Ford F-250 crashed into a car, killing Larry James Gray Sillaway and injuring Dawn Edgerton.
- Ronduelas — the only occupant found at the scene, a cognitively and physically impaired 27-year-old — pled guilty to DUI manslaughter in 2015, and the August 2016 complaint alleged exclusively that Ronduelas was the driver whom the bar knowingly served while habitually addicted to alcohol under section 768.125.
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Holdings
- Under Kopel v. Kopel and rule 1.190(c), an amendment relates back only if the original pleading gave fair notice of the same general factual scenario; a plaintiff may supplement the…
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Why it matters
This is one of the clearest post-Kopel decisions marking the outer boundary of the relation-back doctrine, and it effectively adopts Justice Canady's Kopel dissent as the operative test for when a factual change is too… — full analysis with a trial
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