if you are assualted with a weapon by a bar employee during a fight, is this a possible lawsuit?

Question

A friend of mine was at a bar and was wrestling around with some guy and the mgnr. came up an hit him in the head with a pool stick from behind. Lots of medical bills.

Answer 1

In the US, everything is a possible lawsuit, and there is an endless supply of lawyers who will sue on your behalf at the drop of a hat in order to earn a percentage of the judgment.

It depends on where you were, of course, but generally, bars are huge cash cows, usually with lots of liability insurance - even a nuisance suit would probably succeed with a settlement.

Regarding the merits of the suit - striking someone in the head with a weapon is tantamount to the use of deadly force. The court would look to the totality of the situation, including what part your friend played, who else was involved, what training in fight intervention the manager had, bar policy, whether police were involved, any charges filed, past history at the bar, etc.

Answer 2

You could sue but.........

Excessive force is tricky. If a person at a moment in time honestly felt that in their judgement that to protect people the force was necessary (by definition) then excessive force is hard to prove. Espectially if there were other patrons nearby. If any patron was knocked over your friend could actually have charges filed against him even after the fact.

And here's the thing. If a suit is lodged the owner will easily find tons of people to testify that the action was warrented. And it will probably stick because the judge will automatically ask "why were you screwing around in a bar"? And the question will come up about if one was only wrestling why would one not just stop when asked to? That they did not gives credence to the bar owner. But to be fair the judge will ask the owner why he did not wait for the police or even dive in.

The basic point is in the end your friend will most likely lose. And if he does he will be countersued for any damage that can be found (they will find something), legal fees and all sorts of things. But it depends on the place. Were there bouncers, male bar staff, or whoever about who could have intervened before someone used a "weapon"? Or did he just come out and crack the guy on the head? So it all depends.

Your friend should speak with a lawyer. Because if a suit is lodged and as it is a head injury the bar owner could incur all sorts of insurance liabilty and payouts. Just reporting a suit to his insurance company could raise his rates. If he is the kind of owner that does the absolute last resort he probably already has other issues. This could cause the liquor board to investigate, keep closer tabs or require him to speak to the board especially if he has had other fights.

Handled properly the bar owner will probably choose to settle and at least pay the medical bills. This is an injury on his property insurance wise regardless of who is culpable. He caused the injury so his insurance company may choose not to pay or tell him to settle.

Yes you friend is a butt wipe to get into this situation. But in the US you have to show a really darn good reason to use a weapon and cause potential death by hitting in the head. The owner could not instead hit him in the leg or back? Regardless of the situation unless someone was going to die... there is no call for that.

Pardon my rambling but I have seen this sort of thing. This is one of those questions that makes you want to know more.

Answer 3

First of all, your friend was wrestling around with some guy.....in a bar......where other people go to have a good time & enjoy themselves.

The manager came up & hit him with a pool stick. My guess is that the manager verbally tried to get them to stop, but since they didn't or couldn't hear him, he did the next best thing.

If this is a lawsuit in the making, I don't think it will go well for your friend. Had this happened outside the bar, that would be a whole different thing. Tell your friend to mind his manners when he is out in public.

Answer 4

Well, it was obviously MORE than "wrestling around with a friend".

When a coupla deadbeat drunks start fighting, the employees of the establishment have a right to put a stop to it. Rather than wait for police - and watch the place being destroyed - he took matters into his own hands.

I say good for him.

And, those involved in the fight have a lot of nerve and no brains to believe they can now "sue" someone. Their reprehensible behavior called for strong measures.

Idiots!

Answer 5

There was a case a few days ago here where some bouncers subued a guy because he had gotten violent . They held him on the ground for police , but while being pinned down , he died because his airway was restricted by the bouncers sitting on him .

The bouncers were found not guilty , because this was the only thing they could have done under the circumstances as the guy was a threat to others .

It`s rarely a clear-cut case until you know ALL the facts .

Answer 6

Absolutely, you could file a lawsuit such as assault and battery, while in our own version, this tantamount to physical injury cases. Plus medical damages amounting to thousand's of dollars due to the person hit by the pool stick, lot of stitches and x-ray examination and confinement in the hospital. You certainly have a case to file, because there is evidence such as the medical record, plus eye witnesses of what happen.

Answer 7

Let's see, well as far as I can tell it was at least "excessive use of force", even if he WAS getting out of hand, there are other places to hit to subdue him. The least that could happen is a lawsuit over the medical bills for the cue stick to the head.

Answer 8

Possibly. But if your friend was considered a threat to other partrons at the bar I think the manager was in his rights to defend the property and the customers

Answer 9

Yes, that is assault.

However, your friend may be found to be partly culpable for getting into a fight in the first place.

Answer 10

it depends on the circumstances. it is not a 'one size fits al'l. one can sue anyone but it doesn't mean that you will win. Did you friend start something, was he beligerant, did he theaten anyone? one would have to have more specifics as to the how what when and why.