TOPEKA, Kan. (Legal Newsline) – A VFW Post in Kansas could be liable for injuries caused in a brawl outside of its property, thanks to a Kansas Supreme Court ruling.
Justice Evelyn Wilson and her colleagues ruled that way on July 2 in the personal injury lawsuit of a man that was ejected from a VFW in Clyde then assaulted by a bar patron.
The decision reverses a trial court grant of summary judgment for the VFW, which said it owed no duty to plaintiff Jeffery Hammond at the time of the fight because he wasn’t on its premises.
“In this instance, a breach could have occurred if the finder of fact determines that the VFW, through (one of its employees), did not take reasonable care either to warn against or otherwise prevent the harm done to Hammond,” Wilson wrote.
“For the VFW to be liable for Hammond’s foreseeable injuries, it is enough that the duty arises and the breach occurs on its property, even if the actual resulting physical harm takes place entirely outside the boundaries of its land.”
VFW manager James Nease told Hammond to leave after an argument between Hammond and Travis Blackwood in the bar’s bathroom. Nease told Hammond he was barred from the club for life.
Blackwood and his friends helped escort Hammond outside the VFW, then the argument continued outside. Hammond’s wife testified that Nease saw Blackwood push Hammond against a wall.
Nease and others went back inside after a shoving match. Hammond says it was then that Blackwood head-butted him and pushed him against a wall so that his head hit the wall.
Blackwood and a friend also allegedly kicked Hammond as he tried to get to his truck. Hammond’s wife found him bloodied in the street after.
“(T)he VFW owed Hammond a duty to protect him from the harmful acts of Blackwood as soon as it reasonably became aware of the risk of harm,” Wilson wrote.