A man from Texas has won millions of dollars after blaming a bar for his heavily drunken state.
The suit was filed after Daniel Rawls – the man in question – got into a fight at the restaurant’s car park with another customer.
He was badly hurt in the fight and, according to the lawsuit, the La Fogata Mexican Grill was to blame for having let both customers leave together and for serving alcohol to Rawls throughout the evening.
Rawls was able to win $5.5 million as a result.
The fight between Rawls and Robert Henrickson – who allegedly caused Rawls a head injury – took place in May 2019, according to the Houston Chronicle
The lawsuit stated that the restaurant’s owner, Lourdes Galindo, and one of his bartenders were to blame for the man’s injury. He blamed the two for allowing him and Henrickson to drink until they lost control as well as for letting them leave together. The lawsuit states that Rawls also accused the restaurant of negligence in failing to call an ambulance after he sustained the injury.
The bartender was accused of not being properly trained to understand when to stop serving overly drunk customers. In addition, Galindo was blamed for failing to ensure that the parking space was safe from anything that could “pose a tripping or falling hazard to intoxicated patrons”.
In the parking lot the 2 drunken men got in a fight. The one tripped over the lot's uneven surface and hurt his head. Hence the lawsuit. No mention of prior records of P.I.
— lindad827 (@lindad8271) August 12, 2021
The lawsuit says that Rawls’ head damage was “serious and debilitating” and that it was caused not only by the other man but also by “an uneven parking lot”.
The accuser won the suit to a default judgment as the restaurant’s owner did not respond to it or attend the hearing.
Rawls eventually won $5.5 million for five claims, which included premises liability, negligence, and damages arising from foreseeable criminal conduct.
According to Andrews County jail, in February 2019 and May 2020, Rawls was arrested two times on charges of public intoxication.
The restaurant will have one month to appeal for a retrial.
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