DES MOINES, Iowa (Legal Newsline) - A man who was beat up in the parking lot after patrons celebrated their friend’s 21st birthday with 42 pitchers of beer can sue the bar under Iowa’s dram-shop law, an appeals court ruled.
McKinnon Q. Pangburn suffered a fractured skull and other injuries in a brawl that erupted outside Rookies Sports Bar after somebody urinated on another patron’s car. Pangburn sued Rookies, claiming it was responsible for serving too much alcohol to his attacker, Anthony Keckler.
A trial court dismissed the case, saying Rookies never actually served Keckler. He was a guest who partook in the bar’s coming-of-age special for a friend: 21 pitchers of beer for $21. Another friend of the birthday boy paid for the beer and delivered it to the table, carrying two pitchers at a time. The friends ultimately consumed 42 pitchers of beer in a celebration that lasted until after midnight.
Keckler got rude and obstreperous in the bar, witnesses testified, and hugged the bouncer on the way out. The brawl then broke out in the parking lot and Keckler joined at least a dozen patrons in the fight, despite having no connection to the dispute. Yelling “I’m from Alabama bitch,” he knocked Pangburn to the ground and kicked him, causing serious and permanent injuries. Keckler later pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to prison.
Pangburn made dram-shop and premises liability claims, accusing Rookies of overserving Keckler and failing to break up the fight in the parking lot. The trial court dismissed both claims, saying there was no evidence Rookies employees had served Keckler and it wasn’t foreseeable that someone would commit criminal assault in the parking lot.
The Iowa Court of Appeals, in an Oct. 20 decision, reversed the dram-shop claim but upheld the dismissal of the premises liability claim.
While the Iowa legislature amended its dram shop law in 2018 to require direct sales to patrons who later injure someone, the appeals court ruled, the law before then allowed claims based upon indirect sales. It cited Iowa Supreme Court decisions including one allowing a claim by a person who was injured in a fight by a man whose father had purchased tickets for a “booze cruise” tour.
The fact Iowa tightened the law indicates the standard was broader before, the appeals court ruled.
Another person paid for the beer, the court observed.
“But it’s undisputed that Keckler partook. Another friend testified she saw him `walking around the bar’ holding `two pitchers in his hand at once,’” the court said. “And Keckler admitted in his deposition that he was `obviously intoxicated.’”
The court rejected the premises liability claim, however, for lack of evidence the bouncers knew trouble was imminent outside. The only video was from inside the bar and while it showed the bouncers occasionally left their posts, a view through the open door didn’t reveal anything. The fact Keckler was drunk enough to “glad-hand and hug a bouncer whom he never before” isn’t unusual, the court went on.
“Nothing in the record connects any danger brewing outside to the bouncers’ absence from their post,” the court concluded. “And what is presented is too speculative to survive summary judgment.”