Fabulous Coach Lines owner Ray Land (pictured) and bus driver Wendy Millette are contesting a lawsuit filed by attorney Christopher Chestnut, who represents the family of deceased FAMU drum major Robert Champion.The lawsuit Chestnut filed claims Millette stood guard outside the bus on which Champion was being hazed on Nov. 19. It also says Millette “forced” him back onto vehicle when he came out the bus door to vomit.
Chestnut and the Champions have not answered press questions about how Millette actually “forced” the victim back on board. Robert Champion weighed 235 pounds and was more than six feet tall.
Back in December, Land told the Associated Press that the bus driver was outside assisting the band members who were unloading instruments when Champion collapsed on the vehicle. He says she and the rest of the drivers did everything they could to help after they learned that the drum major was hurt.
Jade Gummer, an attorney for Millette, has filed a motion to dismiss the case. He says that even if the allegations were true, they would not prove that Millette was at fault for Champion’s death.
“Allegedly guarding the [bus] door and forcing the decedent on the motor coach does not cause blunt force trauma,” Gummer stated in the motion to dismiss. “Instead, the actions of the alleged participating FAMU band members and/or alumni who physically caused the blunt force trauma to the decedent during the hazing incident were the direct and proximate cause of the decedent’s death.”
Gummer is a partner in the Orlando office of Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A. The firm’s client list has included Wal-Mart, Publix Super Markets, U-Haul, and Marriott.
Keon Hollis, a FAMU drum major who says he and Champion voluntarily went through the "Crossing Bus C" ritual on Nov. 19, told ESPN that no adults were around the vehicle when they went through the hazing process. He also said he did not see the bus driver there, either.
The Chestnut Law Firm will head into the pending court battle for the Champion case after witnessing a disappointing outcome in an unrelated lawsuit involving a bus incident.
Earlier this year, a lawsuit Chestnut filed on behalf of the
family of Erin Pelton was dropped. Pelton was a Gainesville pedestrian who was
killed by a car after she got off a local bus. The lawsuit sought more than
$200,000 in damages from the City of Gainesville.
The Gainesville Sun reported that “the case was dropped after a late March court-ordered mediation session, and the city will pay out no compensation, according to the City Attorney's Office.”
City Attorney Marion Radson told Gainesville commissioners the defense team argued that, according to Florida law, the city “no legal duty to protect a former passenger after the former passenger safely disembarks the city bus.”