Del Lago Partners, Inc. v. Smith

307 S.W.3d 762 (2010)

Purchase the Printed Copy at bsmsphd.com

Nature of the Case

To access this section all you need to do is click here and register.

Facts

The Grandstand Bar is located in D’s conference center. D has a security force that includes two off-duty law enforcement officers and a retired fireman and paramedic. On the evening in issue, the two officers were patrolling the resort in a golf cart and the fireman was on duty. P attended a Sigma Chi fraternity reunion at D from Friday to Sunday, June 8-10, 2001. On Friday evening P stayed until closing. A uniformed officer was on duty in the bar for several hours that evening, and the officer removed an unruly and intoxicated fraternity member and made everyone leave the bar at midnight, an hour before the usual closing time. On Saturday, P and other fraternity members proceeded to the Grandstand Bar, which was very busy. As many as seven employees were working that evening. A group of ten to fifteen mostly male members of a wedding party entered the bar. Soon after the wedding party arrived, there was tension in the air. Within ten to fifteen minutes of the wedding party's arrival, verbal confrontations between the wedding party and some of the forty remaining fraternity members began. These heated confrontations involved cursing, name-calling, and hand gestures. It all started when one of the fraternity members made an offensive comment to the date of one of the wedding party members. The comment led to men squaring up to each other, with 'veins popping out of people's foreheads.' The participants appeared drunk and that these confrontations recurred throughout a ninety-minute period. Employees observed that the bar patrons were 'very intoxicated' that night. Pushing and shoving match started after about ten minutes of yelling. Between 1:00 and 1:30 a.m., 'things started getting really heated.' Fifteen to twenty minutes before the final fight broke out, P heard yelling between the two groups. The bar staff attempted to close the bar and the crowd refused to leave. The staff went table to table and formed a loose line to funnel the customers toward a single exit and into the conference center lobby. They were pushing the hostile parties out of the bar through the exit, prompting a free-for-all. An all-out brawl ensued, with punches, bottles, glasses, and chairs being thrown, and bodies 'just surging.' P waded into the scrum to remove his friend, who had a heart condition, from the floor. An unknown person grabbed him and placed him in a headlock. Momentum carried Smith and his attacker into a wall, where Smith's face hit a stud. P suffered severe injuries including a skull fracture and brain damage. A waitress went to call security. Next to the phone was a list of numbers, but none was for security. Sweet called the front desk to get the number. Instead of calling security, the front desk gave her the number. She passed it over to a bartender for him to make the call. The two security guards responded swiftly, arriving within two to three minutes. Del Lago's loss-prevention officer also responded and arrived within fifteen to twenty seconds of receiving the call. By the time he arrived, the fight was over. The fight lasted from 3-15 minutes. P sued D. P got the verdict for $1,478,283. The court of appeals affirmed. D appealed.