Two Years After SMU Student Was Buried By SUV In Her Apartment, the Lawsuit

If you don't recall the name Chynna Stone, maybe you remember what happened to her on April 18, 2008: At 3:30 that Friday afternoon, the SMU sophomore was sitting on the couch in her apartment living room on McFarlin Avenue when a very drunk and very stoned 24-year-old Brian Michael Adams drove his GMC Yukon in to the apartment, pinning Stone to the back wall and burying her beneath three to four feet of rubble and ruin. An uninjured Adams was charged with intoxication assault, and Stone, rushed to the hospital in stable but serious condition, recovered -- though she and her attorneys now say that as a result of the incident, Stone, her obsessive compulsive disorder's worse than ever, and she "will endure physical pain ... and mental anguish in the future."

That comes from the lawsuit filed by Stone and her family on Friday in Dallas County District Court. The Stones (who live in Hawaii) and their personal-injury attorney are suing not only Brian Adams (an SMU grad who now lives in Missouri), but also his family and the owner of the apartment. Why Adams's family? Because, alleges the suit, they knew Brian had "serious issues with alcohol and drug abuse" and still let him use the car. And why the apartment's owners? Because, alleges the suit, they failed to tell the Stones that in May 2006, "another vehicle crashed through the very same apartment unit" (the lawsuit's italics) that Stone rented. The apartment's located right where Dickens Avenue dead-ends into McFarlin, and, says the suit, "if Ms. Stone and/or her family had been aware of this material fact, they would not have rented the apartment unit in November 2007."