A Vancouver woman severely injured in a head-on collision caused by a wrong-way driver is suing a Portland strip club for nearly $15 million.
The suit was filed Friday in Multnomah County Circuit Court against Acropolis Steakhouse, 8325 S.E. McLoughlin Blvd., by Vancouver attorney Beau Harlan. It seeks $14,938,157 in damages for Amy Osborne-Clarke, 40, for allegedly over-serving the visibly intoxicated man.
An employee at Acropolis Steakhouse who answered the phone Friday evening declined to comment and said the owner was unavailable.
On June 12, 2015, Osborne-Clarke was driving a 2005 Honda Element — a small SUV-type vehicle — on state Highway 500 west of the Andresen Road interchange when a Nissan sports car traveling westbound in the left eastbound lane of the four-lane divided highway struck her. The driver, Randal S. Corbin, 32, of Vancouver and his passenger, Michael B. York, 33, of Washougal died at the scene.
The lawsuit says that Corbin and York had been at Acropolis Steakhouse celebrating a friend’s birthday in the hours prior to the collision. Over a four-hour span, Corbin consumed large amounts of alcohol and was repeatedly served even after being visibly intoxicated, the suit alleges.
The two men left the strip club at closing time, driving a 1985 Nissan 300ZX. While leaving the parking lot, employees saw Corbin drive northbound in the southbound lanes of McLoughlin Boulevard in Portland, and helped him steer into the correct lane, according to the lawsuit.
Approximately 30 to 50 minutes after leaving the club, Corbin’s vehicle was seen speeding westbound in the eastbound lanes of state Highway 500, where it collided with Osborne-Clarke’s vehicle, the suit says.
Osborne-Clarke was hospitalized with a serious head injury and more than a dozen broken bones, requiring multiple surgeries. Toxicology tests later found that Corbin’s blood-alcohol level was 0.16 at the time of the crash, double the legal limit, the suit alleges.
“On some level, it’s about community safety,” Harlan said in a phone interview of the complaint. Bars, taverns and strip clubs should ensure they are operating properly, he said, and added that his client, a mother of two, suffered “catastrophic injuries.”
Osborne-Clarke is seeking nearly $5 million in damages for past and future medical expenses, lost wages and future loss of earning capacity. She also seeks $10 million in noneconomic damages for pain and suffering. She has already incurred nearly $1 million in medical expenses, the lawsuit states.
