ALBANY, N.Y. – (December 20, 2011) – A New Lebanon, New York mother who allegedly allowed her underage son and his friends to drink alcohol at her house has agreed, one month before the lawsuit against her was to go to trial, to pay $1 million to the widow of a farmer who died of serious injuries after the car her intoxicated son was driving crashed into the farmer’s pickup truck.

Jason L. Shaw, an attorney at Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP, who represented Marie Meehan in the lawsuit brought in the Columbia County Supreme Court, said two insurance companies for Susan Haas of Poole Hill Road, New Lebanon, agreed several days ago to pay the seven figure settlement to Meehan, the administrator of her husband’s estate.

Meehan filed the lawsuit against Susan and Lars Haas after Susan Haas’ son, Lars Haas, on September 25, 2009, disregarded a red light at the intersection of State Routes 22 and 295 in the Town of Canaan, Columbia County, New York and drove his mother’s Pontiac Vibe into the driver’s side of a GMC pickup driven by Robert Meehan, Sr., 72 years of age, who was traveling home from a visit with his mother in Massachusetts. The collision inflicted severe injuries to Robert Meehan who died approximately a month and a half later.

Blood tests performed at the hospital where Lars Haas was taken after the collision showed that he was legally intoxicated at the time of the collision. He ultimately pled guilty in Columbia County Court to charges of negligent homicide, assault, and driving while intoxicated and was sentenced to several years of imprisonment.

“The issue from the beginning was how Lars Haas, 17 at the time, obtained the alcoholic beverages he consumed prior to the accident,” said Shaw. “Our investigation showed that Susan Haas had permitted her son and other teenagers to drink significant amounts of beer and other alcohol at her house on the day of the collision and on prior occasions,” said Shaw. “One witness, a convenience store owner, said under oath that just prior to the collision Susan Haas had purchased several cases of beer, although Susan Haas had testified that she never drank beer. Lars Haas admitted during his guilty plea that he had been drinking Budweiser beer that night, the same brand of beer Susan Haas had purchased.”

“The hard part of this case was Marie Meehan’s loss of her husband in this way after almost 50 years of a good marriage,” said Shaw.

The case was set to go to trial before a jury on January 30, 2012. Another case against the Haases, brought by a passenger in the Haas car, remains on the court’s trial docket.

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