Lewis v. Clark

Apr 24, 2017

OUTCOME: Unanimous Win

On October 22, 2011, Brian and Michelle Lewis were operating a motor vehicle on Interstate 95 in Norwalk, Connecticut. As traffic slowed ahead of them, Brian Lewis brought his vehicle to a halt. Sud ... denly, a limousine traveling at approximately 75 miles per hour struck their car from the rear. The force of the impact caused Lewis’s vehicle to lift off the ground and land on top of a nearby jersey barrier. Brian Lewis sustained a head injury and Michelle Lewis suffered a facial fracture. The Mohegan Sun Casino owned the limousine that struck the Lewises’ vehicle. One of the casino’s employees, William Clarke, drove it. The Mohegan Casino is owned and operated by the Mohegan Tribe, a federally recognized Indian nation. Mr. Clarke was transporting casino patrons to their homes, some 60 miles from the Mohegan reservation. Nonetheless, the Lewises’ vehicle had never reached the Mohegan reservation. James Harrington of Polito & Harrington represented the Lewises and brought suit on their behalf against William Clarke, alleging his individual negligence in the Connecticut Superior Court. Subsequently, Clarke moved to dismiss the case because his employer’s sovereign immunity from suit extended to him, even though Mohegan was not the responsible party. Typically, plaintiffs cannot sue an Indian Nation in state court. The Lewises countered that because they sued Clarke individually and did not seek damages from the tribe, but Clarke himself, immunity did not attach. The court denied Clarke’s motion. Clarke appealed to the Connecticut Supreme Court, which reversed this decision. Attorney Harrington, along with Attorney Eric Miller of Perkins Coie, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Connecticut Supreme Court’s decision. To note, The U.S. Supreme Court receives approximately 6,000 petitions each year and only agrees to hear about 60 cases. The Supreme Court granted Lewises’s petition, marking the first time the Court has agreed to review a decision of the Connecticut Supreme Court in over a decade. The Court officially heard the case on January 9, 2017. On April 25, in a rare, unanimous 8-0 decision, the United States Supreme Court reversed the Connecticut Supreme Court, handing the Lewises’ case, and victims of tribal and casino employees’ negligence nationwide, a major legal victory. The reversal represents a landmark decision, with a national impact on tribal sovereign immunity and casino accidents for generations to come.