Wife of man fatally injured after concert reaches settlement

The wife of a man who was fatally struck in the head at a concert reached a confidential settlement with the venue’s owners on the eve of trial.

Jasen Smith died on May 16, 2019, after suffering a fatal brain injury the night before at a Dave Matthews Band concert at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheater in St. Louis. After the concert ended, he and his wife, Darcy, exited along a concrete walkway known as the “moat.”

After leaving, Smith turned back to retrieve a T-shirt that had been left behind at their seats. He was later found lying in the moat with a lacerated lip, bruising to his face, a left occipital skull fracture and a massive contrecoup brain injury.

In her suit, Darcy Smith alleged that Smith had been hit by one of the thousands of chairs that employees of Live Nation Worldwide, which owned and operated the amphitheater, gathered from the lawn after the show and collected in the moat.

Chip Gentry, an attorney for the family, said the defendant had no written policy or adequate training for employees on how to safely gather and collect the chairs, and that two concert patrons testified that there were piles of chairs just past Smith and chairs flying through the air into the piles while they were being escorted through the moat after he was found injured.

In court papers, the defendant denied that its employees collected chairs before the entrances to the moat were blocked. They also argued that there was no direct evidence of what caused Smith’s injury.

After more than four years of litigation, the case reached a judge-approved settlement for a confidential amount shortly before a trial scheduled for October.

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Confidential settlement

Wrongful Death

Venue: St. Louis County Circuit Court

Case Number/Date: 21SL-CC00734/Oct. 19, 2023

Judge: John R. Lasater

Plaintiff’s Experts: Dr. Amanda Youmans (forensic pathologist); Steven Adelman (event/venue safety); Dr. Daniel Scodary (neurosurgeon); Brooke Liggett (life care planning)

Defendant’s Experts: Dr. Jane Turner (forensic pathologist); Michael Gerard (premises security); Douglas Morr (biomechanical engineer)

Caption: Darcy Smith v. Live Nation Worldwide Inc.

Plaintiff’s Attorneys: Charles A. “Chip” Gentry, Jason Call, Emily Fretwell and Nick Leslie, Call Gentry, Jefferson City

Defendant’s Attorneys: Timothy Niedbalski and Timothy Tevlin, Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard, St. Louis