Roughly a month into their lawsuit against the Saugus restaurant Tribu, attorneys representing fallen state trooper Kevin Trainor’s family called their motion in Essex County Superior Court Tuesday a success.
During a motion hearing, a judge ruled in their favor to attach one of the restaurant owner’s homes and their liquor license in place of insurance. Attorneys Robert Mazow and Keith Sachs said the restaurant lacked sufficient insurance.
They are seeking $20 million.
During the hearing, the plaintiffs claimed the driver who collided with Trainor was seen stumbling to his car with a general manager of Tribu on the morning of May 6th. Inside, they claimed he was served nine drinks.
Moments later, he collided with Trainor’s vehicle on Route 1 while driving the wrong way.
“Unfortunately, Barbara is going to have to suffer through tragedy for a bit more,” said attorney Keith Sachs standing next to Barbara Trainor, Kevin’s mother. “Today was a good step, but a step in a long battle that’s going to go on for a while.”
Plaintiff attorney Robert Mazow added, “Tragedies can occur if restaurants and bars are not following the law.”
Inside the courtroom, attorneys for Tribu claimed the $20 million estimation is “arbitrary.”
One explained, “There’s nothing that says they have likelihood of success in $20 million.”
Trainor was hailed as a hero following his death in May after he allegedly responded to the call for a wrong-way driver while off duty. Moments later, he was struck and killed.
Sachs finished, “I don’t think we’ll ever get true justice in this case... If we can hold people responsible and maybe teach some lessons moving forward, that might be all we can get out of it.”
Attorneys claim this begins the discovery process in the case.
The ABCC said they are still reviewing Tribu’s liquor license, so it remains active.
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