TGI Friday’s Restaurant Found 55% Liable in Stabbing Death of Patron

Our Delray Beach personal injury lawyers at the Law Offices of Aronberg & Aronberg know that juries often time allocate liability to various parties in personal injury cases, consistent with the evidence presented to then. A recent case involving the famous restaurant chain TGI Friday’s demonstrated how the owners of locations in which a personal injury incident takes place can be held responsible for the damages resulting from the incidents.

Specifically, last month, a jury in California awarded $40 million the parents of a 33-year-old man who was stabbed to death in a TGI Friday’s restaurant. In their findings, the jury decided that the restaurant was 55% responsible for the death, which took place in January of 2009.

By way of background, apparently, the 33-year-old had been dating the mother of a certain 20-year-old who disapproved of his mother dating the man. When the 33-year-old was at the TGI Friday’s on one day back in January of 2009, the 20-year-old and a friend had a violent encounter with the man; during the argument, the 33-year-old was fatally stabbed.

Now, as our Delray Beach personal injury lawyers know, while people can be held responsible for personal injuries that took place on their property even if they had little or nothing to do with actually causing the injury, the plaintiff’s attorneys in this case successfully argued that the restaurant operator actually had a hand in causing the tragic death. The restaurant’s liability was invoked because the 20-year-old who wound-up in the violent argument with the decedent had been served and consumed vast quantities of alcohol in the run-up to the confrontation. (The problem, of course, is that the 20-year-old was, at the time of the incident, under the legal drinking age, and should not have been served alcohol).

The family of the deceased 33-year-old claimed that the people working at TGI Friday’s continued to serve the underage drinker even though he was both underage and already intoxicated (our Delray Beach personal injury lawyers know that you’re not allowed to continue to serve someone alcohol if they’re underage or if they’re visibly intoxicated, as doing so can make you liable for the reckless actions they take while under the influence). The 20-year-old had ordered the equivalent of 12 alcoholic servings in just half an hour, something he should not have been able to do.

Based on the evidence that restaurant employees continued to illegally serve alcohol to the underage individual, the jury found them to be 55% liable for the death of the 33-year-old, while the jury found the attackers (the 20-year-old and his friend) to be 45% liable; the 20-year-old attacker will spend time in prison after both pleading guilty to assault with a deadly weapon.

This story goes to show that restaurants and other venues can be on the hook for dangerous incidents that take place on their premises, especially if they acted improperly and thus partially caused the incident to take place.

If you have any questions about this or any other personal injury issue, or if you’ve been injured due to the wrongdoing or negligence of another, please contact our Delray Beach personal injury lawyers at Aronberg & Aronberg by calling 561-266-9191 or by e-mailing daronberg@build.simple.biz to schedule a free consultation. We look forward to assisting you!

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