Published Friday, September 03, 2010 11:21 AM

Ex-Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Phillips sued

Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas -- A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips and his wife, accusing the couple of allowing minors to drink alcohol at their home before the 2009 death of a teenager.

The lawsuit against Phillips and his wife, Lyn, was filed in Bastrop by Cheryl and Bobby King, whose daughter, Audrey, 17, died in the single-vehicle wreck.

The suit, filed Tuesday, alleges the Phillipses routinely allowed teens to drink at their Bastrop home. Their son Daniel, then 20, allegedly held parties at the home, which the lawsuit claims was "well known in the Bastrop community as the location of frequent underage drinking parties."

"Mr. and Mrs. Phillips were home during the party and were well aware that minors were getting drunk in their backyard," said the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages. "The kids made no effort to conceal the beer or the fact that they were drinking."

Phillips, who retired from the high court in 2004 and is now in private practice in Austin, denies the allegations in the lawsuit, according to his attorney, Richard Mithoff.

"Neither Judge nor Mrs. Phillips served or provided alcohol to anyone on the night before the accident," Mithoff said. "Nor did they knowingly allow anyone to consume alcohol or to become intoxicated on their premises."

Mithoff also denied allegations that Phillipses knew Audrey King and her friends had consumed alcohol at the March 30, 2009, party.

The lawyer said the Phillipses were profoundly saddened to learn of her death, adding that they did not know she had been at their home or in the backyard carriage house used by their son, the Austin American-Statesman reported Friday.

Audrey King and three female friends had intended to spend the night at the Phillips home to avoid driving after drinking, but Lyn Phillips awoke when the party grew loud and confronted the teens, ordering everyone to leave "even though they had been drinking for hours and were clearly intoxicated," according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also accuses two Bastrop convenience stores of selling beer to "obviously intoxicated" youths on the night of the party.

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