NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) – An employee of New Orleans’ Boomtown Casino Hotel says the personal injury lawyer suing him over a fall off the toilet is pulling some shenanigans to keep the case out of federal court.
Brad Hirsch said in a March 12 motion to dismiss that the only reason he was named as a defendant was so that plaintiff Dominic Varrecchio would have a Louisiana resident involved in the case. Varrecchio did this, Hirsch argues, to defeat the diversity jurisdiction argument defendants can make to have cases removed to federal court.
State courts are often seen as more plaintiff-friendly, especially in jurisdictions like Louisiana that tort reformers have been concerned about for years. Varrecchio, a lawyer representing himself, sued Boomtown and Hirsch earlier this year in Jefferson Parish court over an alleged February 2020 incident in his hotel room.
Varrecchio says when he rose from the toilet, the seat detached suddenly, causing him to slip and hit his head on the sink and shelves, then fall on the floor. He allegedly sustained injuries to his head, neck, back, knees and left heel.
Hirsch is the general manager of Boomtown and is allegedly liable for failing to properly monitor guest safety.
“The Louisiana Supreme Court has held an employee can only be held individually liable to a third party for breach of an employment-imposed duty if such breach arises from personal, as opposed to technical or vicarious, fault,” lawyers for Hirsch argued.
“Plaintiff’s petition fails to allege any facts that would implicate an independent personal duty and/or personal fault for breach of such a duty on the part of Hirsch; rather, Plaintiff only alleges Hirsch is liable for negligence by reason of his general administrative responsibilities as general manager of Boomtown.”
Hirsch says he was never responsible for the design and installation of toilet seats in Boomtown hotel rooms. He did not create the allegedly hazardous condition, nor did he have knowledge of similar incidents prior to Varrecchio’s fall, he says.
Hirsch is represented by Kyle Truxillo and other lawyers at Adams Hoefer Holwadel.