(leanne42)
If your lawyer calls you a “cocktail party animal” and you previously downed seven alcoholic drinks at a bar before waltzing into another bar, where they serve you the booze you ordered but then kick you out, accidentally severing your pinkie finger in the process should you sue said bar? Okay, hold up. Rhetorical situation aside? A Washington D.C. man is doing just that — suing a bar for loss of pinkie after feeding him drinks he asked for. Oh, the world we live in.
No, it’s not nice to get your finger cut off. But it’s a tricky situation, reports the Washington Post. See, the man who filed the civil lawsuit seeking $500,000 is what’s known as a “cocktail party animal,” says his attorney. He’d been guzzling drinks way before he walked into the bar he’s suing, and proceeded to order a beer for himself and a friend, along with three shots of vodka with Red Bull.
His lawyer claims the bar was negligent in over-serving him, because then oh look at that, he got drunk and they had to throw him out after all that booze. While he was being bounced, his finger was allegedly slammed in the bar door, cutting off his pinkie finger. The man’s attorney says the bouncers “didn’t do anything” when the bloodied finger fell into the well of the door. Eww.
As doctors couldn’t sew the finger back on (again, eww bloody finger), the man is suing for medical expenses, loss of earnings, permanent disability, lost employment opportunity and permanent disfigurement. Not to mention that total buzzkill.
We can see why he’s mad — you give anyone three shots on top of eight other drinks and then oh, hey, suddenly he’s drunk and you’ve got to throw him out, surprise surprise. But also, ordering those drinks in the first place isn’t a great idea.
Popular Georgetown bar sued for assault, negligence [Washington Post]
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Ah individual responsibility, how I miss you…
So, the guy gets drunk, has to be thrown out, gives them the finger, and now he’s suing?
well his claim is that they took the finger.
I was just reading this article on WaPo right before you posted this.
Now, normally I am against “I AM A VICTIM!!” lawsuits; however, in this case I am on the suer’s side. He may have been a raging drunk, and a complete a-hole, and very much deserved getting tossed out of the bar…
BUT
none of that gives the bouncers and the establishment the right to not ensure his safety and well-being.
In other words, his being a drunken jerk does NOT allow the bar to be off the hook for permanently injuring him. They are not allowed to do that NO MATTER WHAT.
This x 1000
They obviously didn’t care enough to ensure he was removed in a safe fashion which is their responsibility. They are part of an establishment that makes money off of people who get unruly. If they can’t deal with those patrons in a safe and professional manner, they shouldn’t be working there.
I agree with this. Severing the guy’s pinkie and then not giving a flip about it isn’t okay.
Yeah, the appropriate punishment for being a raving asshole isn’t permanent disfigurement, at least not permanent disfigurement at the hands of someone else. If you slam your own finger in a door while drunk, well, that’s what you get, but when someone else does it, that’s not cool.
“…at the hands of someone else.”
I see what you did there.
While I agree in principal, I need more info. Was the guy resisting his removal and being beligerent? Did the bouncers deliberately slam the door on his finger, or was it truly an accident? Did they use more force than was necessary to remove him, to sort of teach him a lesson? Those are, I think, important questions.
Agreed. The bouncers screwed up.
They are supposed to be the sober professionals and yet somehow they chopped off the guys finger.
I immediately thought that this was a tragedy. Oh, where will wear his ring now?
drunk or not, if he was being removed from the premises by staff and during that time his finger was severed, the bar is definitely at fault. Although that is a pretty big IF.
I think its more likely that they tossed him out and slammed the door shut and the drunk idiot tried to stick his hand in the door to stop it.
In the end, would need way more information to know what really happened, but he’ll probably win since they did server him while intoxicated (I really hate that the bar is responsible for cutting him off).
A bar is not responsible for cutting him off.
They have the right to cut him off, but it would be impossible to them to know when someone drank too much until that person started acting crazy or passing out. There is no way to know to cut him off before he got too drunk.
What happens when they drink too fast? The person could get a lot of alcohol in him before getting really drunk.
Obviously the guy was really drunk and was doing something stupid so they cut him off. Then he probably did more stupid things so they threw him out.
Now the bar should be 100% at fault for taking his finger.
Eh, I side with the guy. $500k for having a finger ripped off.
Sounds like the guy who lost his finger is in the right here. Bouncers can’t just take any measures they want when ejecting someone. If they hurt someone, they should get sued.
Now at least when he drinks martinis, his pinkie won’t stick out in a ridiculous fashion. Also, a pinkie represents approximately one-thousandth of the man’s body weight. That means that from now on, each drink he has will make him .1% drunker…he should be thanking them.
Story said the doctors weren’t able to reattach the pinky. What, did Kramer drive him to the hospital on a city bus while continuing to make all the stops?
Now we need to complete the sue process and the bartenders need to sue to guy for emotional distress and personal injury for being forced to bounce him from the bar. I think at some point they need to enact the offsetting penalties approach from the NFL, if both people are at fault throw out the suit and replay the down.
What an idiot. Don’t drink if you can’t handle it. Obviously if there was a bouncer involved there must have something else happened that we don’t know of. A bartender can’t judge how many you had as soon as walk in. If this guy wins a bars will be much less fun as every bar will not serve many drinks to anybody anymore.
This is actually a simple case
Estimated medical bills about $5,000.00
Loss of pinky $2,500.00
_____________________
Total damages $7,500.00
Comparative negligence:
Idiot patron 98%
Idiot bouncers 2%
2% of $7,500 + $150.00
Judgment for plaintiff $150.00
I would be interested to know exactly how it played out. Did he amiably walk to the door and exit, while somehow his finger got caught in the door? Or was he asked to leave, refused, started a commotion, then bouncers had to physically grab him and get him out while he kicked and screamed, and clutch onto the door frame to keep from being ejected?
The story in the link was the plaintiff’s version and I suspect there is more to it than that.
I have seen plenty of people get tossed out of bars and never saw anyone get manhandled unless they brought it on themselves.
He was just leaving a tip.
lol
“….loss of earnings, permanent disability, lost employment opportunity…”
Not to be harsh but this guy is a lawyer, and right handed, so what earnings and/or employment opportunities does he loose by lose of his left pinky finger?
The earnings he would be making if he didn’t have to be in court suing the bar?!
i see a new sign for businesses coming already: “not responsible for loss of body parts”
Sounds like a pretty unfortunate accident (and one that the bar’s likely liable for). But 500k for a finger? Seriously?
Worth pointing out that in many states, over-serving someone is a crime for which the bartender is personally liable. It’s incredibly stupid, but it’s the law.
Gotta side with the plaintiff on this one, though he still sounds like an irresponsible douche in his own right.
Bouncers are not supposed to be violent like that. If he was such a problem they should have let him go and called the police in to remove him from the bar safely.
Could have been a stupid accident, but probably completely avoidable.
I actually side with the customer, here. Yes, he should not have been that drunk, and I’m sure he needs a ticket for public intoxication or something along those lines, but if removing him from the bar is what caused the loss of the pinky, they should pay. Not sure about the amount, though. I guess that’s up for a judge to decide.
Apart from that, Mary Beth, I generally enjoy your writing style, but this entry was just awful. It’s just a little too casual and smarmy for my taste. Almost unreadable.
hehe…you said smarmy
Honestly, if you are having so much trouble throwing a drunk patron out of a bar that his finger is severed, you should have called the cops to assist in the first place.