Home Indiana News Suit blames Syracuse men, Leesburg tavern for car crash

Suit blames Syracuse men, Leesburg tavern for car crash

"Courtroom Gavel" by Joe Gratz, public domain
Two Syracuse men and The Keg in Leesburg are being sued by a third man injured in a December vehicle accident.

Plaintiff Jeremy Olmstead, Milford, filed a lawsuit March 1 against Larry Dennis Jr. and Skye Stanley, both of Syracuse, and Keg Corp., doing business as The Keg in Leesburg.

The complaint for damages states that on or about Dec. 28, Olmstead was a passenger in Dennis’s vehicle when Dennis was traveling too fast to make a curved turn and caused the vehicle to leave the road and land in a ditch.

“The aforementioned collision was directly and proximately caused by the carelessness and negligence of” Dennis, it states. As a result, it says Olmstead suffered personal injuries, resulting in pain and suffering. In order to treat these injuries, Olmstead has been required to engage in the services of hospitals, physicians, physical therapists and other medical practitioners, which incurred medical expenses and may continue to incur medical expenses for medical care in the future, “all caused by the negligence of” Dennis, the complaint states.

As a result, the complaint also states Olmstead has incurred lost income and may continue to lose income in the future.

A Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office crash report filed at the time indicates the accident happened around 11:30 p.m. The SUV went off the road, went through a crop field, became airborne and came to a rest in a drainage ditch, impacting the opposite bank head-on. Dennis, 48 at the time, complained of knee and lower leg pain, while Olmstead, then-44, had severe bleeding to the head and both were taken by EMS to Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne.

Stanley is named in the lawsuit because at the time of the Dec. 28 collision, the vehicle being driven by Dennis was owned and/or controlled by Stanley.

The Keg is named in the lawsuit because Dennis was a patron of the bar. The complaint states The Keg served “intoxicating beverages” to Dennis despite the fact that the employees of The Keg had actual knowledge that Dennis was “visibly intoxicated.” The Keg and its employees furnished Dennis with alcoholic beverages in violation of Indiana law.

The complaint states The Keg’s employees “furnished alcoholic beverages to the defendant Larry Dennis Jr. causing his impairment and intoxication with actual knowledge” that he was “visibly intoxicated at the time said beverages were furnished.”

It also states that some time in the late evening hours of Dec. 28, Dennis left The Keg and drove a vehicle in which Olmstead was a passenger. Dennis was involved in a “violent one-car motor vehicle collision” on Warsaw-Oswego Road.

As a “direct and proximate result of the carelessness and negligence” of The Keg, Olmstead suffered personal injuries, resulting in pain and suffering, the complaint states.

The complaint asks the court grant Olmstead judgment against Dennis, Stanley in an amount “commensurate with his injuries and damages, for the costs of this action and for all other relief just and proper in the premises.”