A Jefferson County jury today returned a verdict in the amount of $10 million in favor of a female motorcyclist who was killed while training on the Barber Motorsports race track in Leeds on May 22, 2009. The wrongful death case was tried for the plaintiff by MRB’s David Marsh and Rip Andrews.
33-year-old Sutton Chandler was riding in an event known as “track day” when a corner worker ran onto the track into her path. The event was organized and run by Ed Bargy, LLC. The corner worker worked for the Bargy company. The evidence showed that race control had ordered the corner worker to stay off the track until there was a break or a gap in the line of motorcyclists. David and Rip proved that the cardinal rule for all workers on and around the race track was “never enter a hot track without permission from race control”.
The defendant defended the case by blaming the rider. David said “the jury got the case, understood the difference between wanton and intentional conduct, and refused to buy into the attack on Sutton”.
