Bars Served an Underage Driver All Night. A 22-Year-Old Passenger Paid With His Life.

On the night of January 15, 2022, Austin Henson visited several bars in York County, South Carolina. He was a teenager, and at least one of those establishments served him anyway, knowingly. By the time Henson got behind the wheel, his blood alcohol concentration measured 0.11, and toxicology later confirmed the presence of cocaine and THC as well.

Traveling along Cherokee Falls Road with 22-year-old Tristen Hewitt in the passenger seat, Henson was going too fast when the road curved. He lost control. The car left the roadway and struck a tree. Hewitt was rushed to a hospital and placed on life support. He did not survive. His mother was by his side when he died.

Hewitt's family retained Kenneth Berger and Brad Lanford of the Law Office of Kenneth Berger, along with David Yarborough and Reynolds Blankenship of Yarborough Applegate in Charleston. The legal team pursued claims against Henson directly and, critically, against the bars that had served him under South Carolina dram shop liability law.

The civil case against the establishments took an unusual turn: the bars' insurance broker failed to forward copies of the lawsuit to their respective liquor liability carriers. That failure produced a default judgment against the bars before the carriers were even aware litigation had commenced. The resulting posture complicated the defense and contributed to the pressure that drove negotiations.

The bars' identities were kept confidential as a condition of the settlement agreement. On April 26, 2023, all claims resolved for $8,350,000. Henson faced separate criminal proceedings on a felony DUI charge arising from the same crash.