A case before the state Supreme Court addresses whether sovereign immunity protects a tribal employee from lawsuits seeking damages from the employee individually and not from the tribe.

The high court’s ruling, expected this fall, has the potential to be a precedent-setter, according to Waterford attorney James Harrington, whose clients sued William Clarke of Norwich, a Mohegan Sun-employed limousine driver. The plaintiffs, Brian and Michelle Lewis of Bethlehem, Pa., claim Clarke’s negligence caused the Oct. 22, 2011, accident in which they were seriously injured when the limousine rear-ended their vehicle on Interstate 95 in Norwalk.

Harrington, of Polito & Quinn, said Monday that courts have consistently held that sovereign immunity extends to tribal employees sued in connection with their tribal capacities. Such suits have sought damages from the tribe, he said.

“But we’re not suing him (Clarke) in his capacity as an employee,” Harrington said. “Rather, as an individual.”

Harrington also represented two couples who were riding in the limousine, which was taking them home from Mohegan Sun. Both couples sued Mohegan Sun — not Clarke individually — in the Mohegan Gaming Disputes Court. Three of the peopled sustained relatively minor injuries, Harrington said, while the fourth, Salvatore Vizzo, of Greenwich, suffered severe back injuries.

The Connecticut Law Tribune reported last week that Vizzo has settled his suit for $775,000. The three other limousine passengers' claims were settled for a total of about $50,000.

Harrington said all of the accident victims had originally been represented by other attorneys before coming to him. By the time the Lewises’ original attorney consulted him, he said, the tribal court’s one-year statute of limitations on the filing of such suits had expired.

“They had no other recourse but to file in state court,” Harrington said.

The Lewises sued in New London Superior Court in October 2013, naming Clarke and the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority as defendants. Days later, they dropped the authority from the suit.

Clarke moved to have the suit dismissed, claiming the tribe’s sovereign immunity pertained to him. Judge Leeland Cole-Chu denied the motion last September, prompting Clarke to appeal to the state Appellate Court. In March, the Supreme Court transferred the case to itself.

In his decision, Cole-Chu sided with the Lewises in finding that “because the remedy sought is not against the MTGA, Clarke is not immune from suit.”

The Lewises’ suit seeks more than $15,000 in damages from Clarke.

b.hallenbeck@theday.

Twitter: @bjhallenbeck