Police in Texas are dealing with a bizarre tragedy where a suicidal man ran out in front of traffic and was hit by a car. At the time, he was being chased by a man in a gorilla suit. Paul Nimnicht, 32, had announced in the CoCo Bongo nightclub that he was going to commit suicide outside of the club around midnight. When he ran outside, he was chased by a waiter dressed as a gorilla. The chase took them to Highway 281 where Nimnicht was struck by a passing Infiniti.
The waiter said that he heard Nimnicht say he was going to commit suicide and wanted to stop him. Remarkably, Nimnicht who had been drinking survived and is recovering from his injuries.
An interesting twist is that Nimnicht left without paying his bill. If the waiter was chasing him over his bill, would it create any liability? Certainly not to Nimnicht. While I accept the waiter’s statement of his motivation, he would still be permitted to chase after Nimnicht even if he was limited in what he could do once he caught them. The driver, Nathan Girton, 31, could make a claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress and vehicular damage against either Nimnicht or the club (via its employee). Again, it is hard to establish proximate causation against the club. Nimnicht however was obviously negligent in his conduct.
Source: Daily Mail
Bizarre indeed.
It seems that if the waiter didn’t chase Nimnicht into traffic, but followed trying to stop him from his expressed intention of committing suicide by speeding car, then the club should not be liable to Nimnicht. The waiter was acting as a good Samaritan. And if the waiter had been injured, then he could have an action against Nimnicht under the “danger invites rescue” doctrine. Now dram shop liability might be a different matter for the club, but does providing alcohol to a customer make the bar liable for the customer’s suidical ideation? I’d happily represent the nightclub in this situation.
His pants were on fire. He ran. When he saw the gorilla he thought he had run too far. The car driver was in Texas and knew about the gorillas and was negligent. The gorilla put out the fire in Numnuts pants. Numnuts did not run out on a bill because he was not drinking and had no bill, as the bar owner will attest. The fuller version is explaned in the Fort Worth Press and Fox News.
‘Nimnicht’ Nim translates to mean ‘steal’ or ‘pilfer’….Nicht is germaic for ‘is not’. So BarkinDog you are correct, he did NOT run out on a bill. However I believe the closest translation of ‘ Nimnicht’ correlates to ‘Numbnuts’ so once again, Mr. BarkinDog, you are right on point….
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” – Hunter S. Thompson
Was this professional? Not sure. But it certainly was weird.
Something wrong with the way the guy is holding his cigarette……
It would be interesting to see what was proffered to be the intent of the waiter and how often this changes during the course of any future legal battle.