Bar To Pay $500K To WC Student's Family In Drowning Death: Report

PHILADELPHIA, PA — A bar must pay the family of a West Chester University student who drowned after a late night out in Manayunk.

Shane Montgomery, a Roxborough native who was drinking at Kildare's on Thanksgiving Eve, 2014, ultimately drowned in the Schuylkill River canal.

Kildare's must pay his family a $525,000 settlement, a civil court jury ruled this week.

The jury ruled Montgomery's death partly stemmed form Kildare's serving him while he was visibly intoxicated, according to Philly.com.

Montgomery, a West Chester University student, disappeared in the early morning hours on Nov. 27 after meeting friends at Kildare's. The Garden State Underwater Recovery Unit found Montgomery's body in the water behind the Manayunk Brew Pub near Shurs Lane and Main Street.

Montgomery bears most of the blame for his death, the jury admitted, and they did not find negligence on the part of two Kildare's bouncers and its director of operations in connection with the death.

The suit alleged Kildare's and the workers broke Pennsylvania law by serving him even as he was visibly intoxicated. It also alleged the establishment was negligent in kicking him out without trying to find his friends or calling him a taxi.

With reporting from Patch correspondent Max Bennett