Surprise deal ends theater trial Monday

Plaintiffs attorney Don Keenan had called it an eight-figure case, but after the jury was seated, the plaintiff settled with Regal Cinemas for $50,000. Defense attorneys Matthew Moffett and W. Winston Briggs were surprised the case settled because their offer had been pending for two years, and there was a large gap between the sides’ valuations of the case.

The trial was set to be a rematch of a 2010 premises liability trial over the same incident. In 2010, plantiffs attorney Don Keenan asked a jury for a $7 million verdict against Regal Cinemas and its security company for the death of Jesus Silencio, who was killed in a gang shooting in an Atlanta movie theater parking lot. In that case, the jury found for the defense. This time plantiffs attorney Don Keenan and co-counsel Timothy Cavanagh represented Silencio’s sister, Claudia. During the 2006 incident, Claudia ran from the ticket lobby into the parking lot when Jesus Silencio was fighting with members of a gang. The fight escalated and shots were fired, killing Jesus Silencio and injuring Claudia Silencio.

Read more about the case in this full article.