Fuller’s Car Wash Lawsuit: Wrongful Death and Bankruptcy Ruling

The Fuller’s Car Wash lawsuit is a wrongful death case filed in December 2023 by Brian and Kristine Richards, whose 14-year-old son Sean was killed in July 2023 when a 16-year-old car wash employee drove a Jeep out of the wash tunnel at full acceleration, jumped the curb, and struck him on a Hinsdale, Illinois sidewalk before crashing into a sandwich shop across the street. The suit is now tangled with a Chapter 11 bankruptcy the business filed on the eve of depositions, and in December 2025 a federal bankruptcy judge found the Fuller family had engaged in “gross mismanagement, self-dealing and general incompetence” and ordered an independent trustee to take control of the company’s finances.¹

What Happened Outside Fuller’s Car Wash

Around 2:30 p.m. on July 17, 2023, Martin Contreras Jr., a 16-year-old employee at Fuller’s Car Wash at 102 West Chicago Avenue in Hinsdale, got into a 2020 Jeep Wrangler that had just come through the wash tunnel. His job was to drive it out. Instead of the brake, he pressed the accelerator to the floor. The Jeep crossed the sidewalk, jumped the curb, cut across two lanes of traffic, and slammed through a brick wall into Fontano’s Subs across the street.²

Sean Richards, the youngest of four children, was walking north on the sidewalk toward the Hinsdale Public Library when the Jeep hit him. He had just graduated eighth grade from St. Isaac Jogues and was set to start at Benet Academy in the fall.³ Three people inside the restaurant were also injured. Sean was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital and died on July 20, 2023. His mother witnessed the crash.⁴

Data from the Jeep’s event recorder confirmed the brake was never pressed; the vehicle’s Electronic Stability Program engaged braking on its own about eight-tenths of a second before impact. Drug and alcohol tests on Contreras came back negative. In October 2023, DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin announced no criminal charges would be filed, calling it a “horrible accident” with no intent or recklessness. Contreras was cited for three traffic offenses, including failure to yield to a pedestrian on a sidewalk.⁵

Who the Richards Family Sued and What They Alleged

On December 13, 2023, Brian and Kristine Richards filed suit in the Circuit Court of Cook County through Clifford Law Offices, with partners Bradley M. Cosgrove and Charles R. Haskins as lead counsel.⁶ The complaint named a long roster of defendants tied to the Fuller family:

Corporate entities: Fuller’s Car Wash, Inc.; Fuller’s Service Center, Inc.; 102 W. Chicago, LLC; Fuller’s Real Estate Holdings, LLC; D.A. Fuller Corporation; and Douglas Fuller Family, L.P.
Individuals: Douglas A. Fuller Jr. (president of Fuller’s Service Center), Susan Fuller Groenewold (secretary and director), and Martin Contreras, sued as father and guardian of the minor driver.⁷

The complaint alleged that Fuller’s failed to install barriers between the car wash exit and the public sidewalk, put inexperienced employees behind the wheel of customers’ vehicles, instructed drivers to accelerate in dangerous conditions, and provided inadequate training. The Richards family also pointed to earlier crashes at the same exit as evidence Fuller’s knew the setup was dangerous.⁷

The Prior Incidents

According to the complaint and the family’s public statements, at least three similar incidents had occurred at the Hinsdale location before Sean’s death. In July 2007, an employee driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee hit the accelerator leaving the tunnel, jumped the curb, crossed the street, and struck a pickup truck parked in front of Fontano’s Subs. A similar incident happened in 2009. Around 2022, two vehicles rolled out of the car wash and hit a parked car belonging to Lauri Aldrich, who the family says had warned Fuller’s the area was unsafe for the heavy foot and bicycle traffic passing the exit.²

A Sixteen-Year-Old Behind the Wheel

The driver’s age raised a separate legal issue. Illinois administrative regulations bar employing a minor at any car wash “the moving of motor vehicles in its course of operation.”⁸ Federal law classifies driving a motor vehicle as a hazardous occupation prohibited for anyone under 18.⁹ No regulatory agency has publicly announced enforcement action against Fuller’s for employing a minor in this role, but the prohibition sits behind the negligence claims.

The Bankruptcy That Stopped the Case

On January 29, 2025, Fuller’s Service Center, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Case No. 25-bk-01345. The petition listed assets of $500,001 to $1 million and liabilities of $1 million to $10 million. Company attorney David Welch said the filing would let the business “restructure its business and financial affairs so as to maintain an operating business for the benefit of all of its creditors and employees for another 75 years.”¹⁰

The petition came just before scheduled depositions of the teenage driver and the car wash owners. Because a Chapter 11 filing triggers an automatic stay, the wrongful death case froze. The Richards family accused Fuller’s of using every “trick in the book” to delay their day in court.¹¹ They filed a proof of claim in the bankruptcy for $500 million in compensatory and punitive damages,¹² and joined the U.S. Trustee in asking the court to dismiss the case, convert it, or appoint an independent trustee.¹³

What the Bankruptcy Judge Found

On December 9, 2025, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Deborah Thorne issued a 31-page ruling ordering the appointment of a Chapter 11 trustee.¹⁴ The findings were sweeping.

In March 2024, about eight months after Sean’s death and while the civil suit was pending, financial controller Susan Headley set up a new entity called Munn Holdings, LLC. It had the same six Fuller siblings as shareholders and one purpose: to receive proceeds from the sale of four car wash locations and keep that money out of reach of the Richards lawsuit. Those locations, in Cicero, Elgin, Matteson, and Calumet City, sold in March 2024 for a combined $11.7 million.¹⁵

Judge Thorne also found that money moved between Fuller’s Service Center and its related entities with “little or no documentation.” In 2024, the business made $3 million in “advances” to its owners and $188,000 to a non-shareholder family member, none of which had been repaid by the end of that year. Company funds paid for luxury vehicles for family and employees and covered hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal credit card bills.¹⁶

During the first six months of the bankruptcy case, between $1.7 million and $2.15 million owed by shareholders was repeatedly removed from and added back to the company’s balance sheet. Shortly after the 2023 crash, the company converted term life insurance policies for its shareholders to whole life, pushing monthly premiums from roughly $1,600 to about $8,000. Judge Thorne called this a way to “remove cash into an asset that benefited the shareholders.”¹

The court found the testimony of company president Douglas Fuller and controller Susan Headley “less than credible.” Fuller admitted he had never read the bankruptcy documents and showed little involvement in the firm’s finances. Headley struggled to explain gaps between tax returns and internal records, gave conflicting accounts of personal expenses, and admitted she had removed intercompany loans from the books before the filing on instructions she said she “did not understand.”¹³

Judge Thorne wrote that leadership appeared to be acting with a “desire to cheat either the IRS (if the loans were never to be repaid) or its creditors (if this valuable asset was not liquidated for their benefit).” She described “fumbling and yet consistent efforts to hide assets, refusal to avoid transfers and otherwise refusal to act as a fiduciary to its creditors,” and directed the U.S. Trustee to appoint someone to take over.¹

Where the Case Stands

The bankruptcy court has modified the automatic stay to let the wrongful death lawsuit move forward in Cook County Circuit Court to determine liability beyond the company’s insurance coverage.¹³ No trial date has been publicly reported. A Chapter 11 trustee has been ordered, though the identity of the appointee and any actions taken since have not been publicly reported. Through attorney Pam Menaker of Clifford Law Offices, the Richards family continues to press for Fuller’s to be forced to relocate the Hinsdale car wash “to an area with less foot, bicycle, scooter and stroller traffic.”¹²

1
The Hinsdalean. Judge: Trustee Needed in Bankruptcy Case
2
WGN TV. Fuller’s Car Wash Bankruptcy
3
ABC 7 Chicago. Hinsdale Crash at Fontano’s
4
Clifford Law Offices. Richards Family Statement
5
Fox 32 Chicago. Teen Driver Who Fatally Struck 14-Year-Old Will Not Face Criminal Charges
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Clifford Law Offices. Clifford Law Offices Files Lawsuit in Death of 14-Year-Old
7
Clifford Law Offices. Complaint of Brian Richards and Kristine Richards
8
Cornell Law Institute. Ill. Admin. Code Tit. 56, Section 250.215
9
Illinois Department of Labor. Child Labor Law Compliance
10
The Hinsdalean. Fuller’s Service Center Files for Chapter 11
11
Chicago Sun-Times. Facing Wrongful Death Lawsuit, Fuller’s Car Wash Files for Bankruptcy
12
The Hinsdalean. Richards File Claim in Fuller’s Bankruptcy Case
13
GovInfo. In re Fuller’s Service Center Inc., Case No. 25-1345
14
U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Illinois. In re Fuller’s Service Center Inc.
15
Patch. Hinsdale Car Wash Hides Assets From Family Who Lost Son
16
Patch. Bankruptcy-Seeking Hinsdale Wash Made Millions Last Year