Enjoying New York nightlife should not be turned into a dangerous activity as the result of a Bar or Nightclub Owner’s failure to use reasonable care in preventing another customer or one of its own employees from wrongfully assaulting a patron, bringing weapons into the club, allowing serious injuries to occur, throwing a beer bottle, or otherwise causing their patron to suffer serious injuries as the result of failing to provide adequate security.
Bar and Nightclub Owners must use reasonable care to protect customers from injury arising from reasonably anticipated causes. They have a duty to control the conduct of persons on their premises in order to prevent harm to others when they are aware of the conduct and had a reasonable opportunity to control it, but failed. Evidence of prior similar incidents may be enough to establish that the Bar or Nightclub owner should have reasonably anticipated the occurrence that caused injuries.
Recent cases have included a nightclub owner and security company failing to properly screen guests entering the club for weapons. Allowing one patron to enter a club with a weapon when the owner and security company is attempting to control the conduct and fails to do it properly may be a sufficient basis to impose liability not only for the injury that is caused as a result of the use of that weapon but also the injuries caused by the guests rushing for the exits following becoming aware of the incident. Other cases have included serious physical injuries caused as the result of an assault by an intoxicated patron who should not have continued to be served alcohol or should have been removed from the bar prior to the assault.
In the case where an injury is caused by an intoxicated person, under New York law, Bar and Nightclub Owners may be responsible for any injury caused as the result of unlawfully selling liquor to an intoxicated person which either caused or contributed to such intoxication. This law is known as New York’s Dram Shop Act. Evidence of intoxication may include slurred speech or being unsteady in stance. This law prohibits the sale of alcohol for profit to a visibly intoxicated person. Evidence of selling the alcohol directly to the person responsible for the injuries is required. Under the law both actual and exemplary damages may be recovered under the Dram Shop Act.
When an injury is inflicted as the result of a bouncer or security employee hired by the Bar or Nightclub owner, the employer can be held liable for the wrongful acts committed by that employee acting within the scope of the employment. The employer may be held liable when the employee acts negligently or intentionally, so long as the wrongful conduct is generally foreseeable and a natural incident of the employment. The employer would be responsible for injuries caused as the result of over-aggressive bouncers causing injuries to patrons.
Personal injury lawyer Philip Monier has successfully obtained compensation from owners and operators of restaurants and bars for victims of assaults. If you have been injured in a bar or nightclub incident please contact us for a free consultation.