Jurors asked themselves if a warning label would have prevented an alcoholic woman from drinking up to half a fifth of whiskey a day while she was pregnant and answered "no," ruling that a major distiller should not be held liable for her son's birth defects.
The federal court jury ruled Wednesday that James Beam Distillery Co. was not liable for the fetal alcohol syndrome that Candace Thorp, 36, and her husband, Harold, claimed was the result of the distiller's failure to put a warning label on its whiskey.Jury forewoman Lynn Arthur reiterated the question that attracted much of the panel's attention in light of the mother's acknowledged chronic alcohol abuse: "Would the warning really have made any difference?"
"Everybody knew that a label would not have done any good," said juror Staci Gilbreth.
In filing the first lawsuit of its kind against a liquor company, Thorp acknowledged that she was a heavy drinker during her 1984 pregnancy but claimed that she would have stopped drinking if Jim Beam bottles had carried a warning about fetal alcohol syndrome.