$16.6 Million Verdict for Family of Woman Who Died in Radio Station Water-Drinking Contest

On January 12, 2007, Jennifer Lea Strange drove to a Sacramento radio station to compete in a morning-show contest called 'Hold Your Wee for a Wii.' The prize was a Nintendo Wii console. Contestants drank measured quantities of water and were disqualified if they urinated before the contest ended. Strange, 28, consumed nearly two gallons of water over roughly three hours. She left the station without winning, complained of a severe headache, and died later that day. The cause was hyponatremia -- water intoxication -- a condition in which excess water dilutes the body's sodium levels to a fatal degree.

Listeners had called the station during the broadcast to warn that the contest was dangerous, including at least one caller who specifically described the risk of death from drinking too much water. Recordings of the 'Morning Rave' show captured on-air personalities acknowledging those warnings while continuing the contest. Strange left behind her husband Billy and their three children.

Roger A. Dreyer of Dreyer, Babich, Buccola and Callaham -- now Dreyer Babich Buccola Wood Campora -- represented the Strange family alongside co-counsel Harvey Levine. Over 26 days of trial, the legal team played the station's own broadcast recordings for the jury. Those recordings showed disc jockeys joking about contestants vomiting and musing on-air that someone could die, even as caller warnings were dismissed. Dreyer asked the jury to hold both Entercom Sacramento LLC, which operated KDND, and its parent company Entercom Communications Corp. responsible for $34 million in damages.

On October 29, 2009, the Sacramento Superior Court jury returned a unanimous verdict finding Entercom Sacramento 100 percent at fault. The panel also voted 10 to 2 that Strange bore no contributory negligence. Economic damages were set at $1,477,118; non-economic damages at $15,100,000, for a total of $16,577,118. The parent company was found not liable. Entercom did not appeal the verdict; the judgment was ultimately covered by the company's insurance. The verdict stood as Sacramento County's largest wrongful-death award at that time.