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A woman who died in a car accident while driving intoxicated after a company-mandated wine tasting was responsible for her own death, lawyers for those who served her wine told a Connecticut court this week.

The estate of Nicole Silva is attempting to hold the server and his employer liable after an earlier failed attempt to hold liable the restaurant that employed and required her to attend the event.

After consuming wine at the event, Silva left the restaurant and drove toward her home. On the way, she was involved in a head-on collision with another vehicle. As a result of that collision, she was injured and died three days later.

Silva’s estate has lodged allegations of “reckless and wanton service” of alcohol by Jason Kelley, the server, and his employer, liquor distributor Hartley & Parker LLC (now Martignetti Companies). The complaint alleges Kelley served her wine and other drinks, in spite of her being “obviously intoxicated” and even though he allegedly knew that Silva intended to drive home at the conclusion of the event.

But in their defense, Kelley and Hartley & Parker maintain that Silva assumed the risk for the accident that caused her death because she “willingly and voluntarily chose to consume excessive amounts of alcohol and drive her motor vehicle while she was intoxicated.”

Silva’s own “negligence, carelessness, and/or recklessness were substantial factors in causing her injuries and death,” according to the servers’ legal answer. They claim Silva violated various state traffic safety laws including ones regarding posted speed limits, driving in the right lane, applying brakes when needed, and “recklessly, knowingly, and voluntarily” operating a motor vehicle after consuming excessive amounts of alcohol.

Silva’s estate originally brought claims of common law negligence and wrongful death against her employer, Consiglio’s Restaurant in New Haven and its owner, and the servers for their alleged negligence in serving Silva too much alcohol and not offering her transportation to her home.

But in February 2024 Judge Elizabeth Stewart in the Superior Court in New Haven rejected Silva’s claims in her original complaint, finding that there is no common law cause of action for negligent service of alcohol to a person, and the dram shop act only provides a cause of action to a third party who is injured by the person who was served alcohol, not to the intoxicated person herself.

The judge further found that there is no duty on behalf of a purveyor of alcohol to provide an intoxicated patron with transportation.

The court later acknowledged that while it was right to dismiss Silva’s claims against Consiglio’s Restaurant and its owner, the court had erred in also dismissing the claims against the servers without weighing arguments related to their role. In January 2025, Judge Stewart granted Silva’s request to reargue that part of her case, to which Kelley and Hartley & Parker have now responded.

Topics Personal Auto