David Burton Reports $565,000 Verdict in Randolph County

On May 4, 2007, a jury returned a verdict of $565,000 after a five-day trial in the Randolph Superior Court, in Winchester, Indiana, before Judge Peter Haviza. My client, then age 34, was injured by another customer in a fight on the sidewalk in front of a bar called The A&B Café as he and his friends were trying to leave. There had been fighting inside the bar only minutes before including involving my client’s girlfriend and an off-duty female bartender. I used the bar’s security videotape to great effect in examining witnesses, including footage showing the female bartender running through the bar and out the front door with several persons trailing her including my client’s attacker, apparently in pursuit of my client’s group. The bar owner argued the bartender was off-duty and acting outside the scope of her employment. The attacker and his friends maintained that my client had ambushed him as he exited the bar. I had to contend with the fact that the videotape also showed my client's girlfriend punching him in the jaw, which (according to the defendants) started the spiral of events.

My client sustained multiple fractures of his right leg below the knee as he and the attacker fell to the sidewalk. He refused medical attention at the scene and was not able to get to a hospital until 8 hours later by which time he had developed massive internal swelling known as compartment syndrome. Because of this delay, the defendants also argued that my client had failed to mitigate (reduce) his damages. After multiple surgeries, he was left with permanent nerve damage and a dropped foot. The client experienced tremendous pain in his leg, upon sustaining the injury, during his hospitalization and surgeries, during his rehabilitation, and to the present date. He has been ruled disabled by the Social Security Administration. The total medical bills were $67,000, almost all of which were paid by charity and Medicaid, which I acknowledged to the jury. We also did not have a strong lost earnings claim, as my client’s income records were inconsistent.

The jury apportioned fault, as follows: 10% to the client, 47.5% to the attacker, and 42.5% to the bar owner. The case presented numerous obstacles as to liability and damages, so the outcome is especially satisfying.