The family of Bryan Lee Glenn, 30, is suing IP Casino Resort and Spa in Biloxi Mississippi in a case of over serving. Usually such cases involve dram shop crimes by a third party being injured or killed by a drunk driver. In this case, the family alleges that the casino kept serving Glenn until he returned to his hotel room and collapsed and died.
The family said that it repeated asked the casino to stop serving Glenn because he was on medication. Yet they said that casino workers kept serving him free drinks in August 2009.
Glenn was on Percocet and morphine as well as antipsychotic medications.
The proximate causation and defense issues in the case would seem to present significant barriers for the family. Glenn reportedly attempted suicide days before his death. He had suffered a traumatic brain injury in a four-wheeler accident in 2004 and was injured in his back in a 2007 car accident. He had collected $15,000 on an earlier lawsuit and had moved to Virginia with his mother and brother after he lost everything in Hurricane Katrina.
The family is seeking $75 million.
The case raises a classic over-serving claim where the family is saying that casino employees were informed that Glenn had consumed too much alcohol. Casinos cannot claim that a customer has the final word on how much they can consume. Casinos routinely cut off people under dram shop rules. It becomes a bit more difficult if the person is not exhibiting signs of being over-served and is demanding more alcohol.
The case does expose another all-too-common example of the social costs of casinos, which tend to make their money on lower income players as opposed to high rollers. Here was a man with little money — and apparently little luck in life — being encouraged to keep playing with a steady stream of alcohol. It is a tragedy played out across the country in greater numbers as cities turn to casinos for an infusion of money at a time of budget restraints.
Source: USA Today
itchinbayDog here. You will have to excuse BarkinDog. He was a guide dog for a blind guy who used to frequent gambling casinos and BarkinDog is partial to gambling casinos and liked to look at the hookers while blind guy was playing the slots. Blind guy even bought BarkinDog a hooker once when the slot machine paid out big time. I think that they went to this very same casino in Mississippi.
-ithcinbyDog.
Holy smolly! I read the article by punching that little blue line that says USA Today and it says that the hooker took his money out of his pocket. She was trying to cut him off the booze. The casino needs to counterclaim against the family for imposing him on the other customers. The article says that the dead guy and the family were out celebrating his collection of money from another lawsuit. This family is litiguous. The cheap dead guy did not even pay for his drinks according to the article. Psychopath, drunk, court abuser, sex pervert (where was his wife?), pain killer abuser, gambler. What more did this family foist on society. I hope he doesnt have any kids. Sonnyboy is probably outside a casino near you, looking at the hookers and scheming a way to get inside.
That word should be “showed” not “should” when I was referring to the hooker. She showed some sense.
One thing that the defendant Casino should not do in this case is cross complain against the hooker. She is the only one who should any sense in this case and stayed away from JoeBob. Anti psychotic medications no less– his own doctors think he is a psychopath. Maybe he ought to sue the humane society for not locking him up.
If he had anti psychotic medication then what was his family doing letting a psychopath loose on society and allowing him to enter a casino of all places. He could have been in a card game and lost and then assaulted the other players or the dealer. Gambling is an addiction. What is wrong with his doctor? He should have prescribed anti gambling medication. Also anti drinking medication. Society needed to provide him with a human monitor to watch his every move. The cab driver should never have let him out of the cab in front of the casino. The bar tender should have asked for his Sanity ID. The slot machine should have scanned his eyes to see if he was drunk or on meds. The hooker should have taken him off to his room before he got too drunk. My gosh, you would think this guy was an adult over the age of 18 had it not been for the doctor, the pharmacist, the bartender, the slot machine, the dealer and the hooker– who were all lapse in their duties. Next thing you know the family will be blaming his dog. Yeah, family, blame everyone else because you had a ner do well, drunk, drug addicted, gambling, lame, stupid, brother, father, or son. While you are at it sue his grade school.
That would be my closing argument.
The Casino should file a cross claim against the doctor who prescribed the Percocet, the drug company who made those pills, the pharmacy who sold them to dead guy. Putting all the squirrels into the cage will make the claim against the Casino seem a bit more lame. I believe in the philosophy of “18 Up and Out”. This means that when you are of adult age that you are on your own, you think for self and are responsible for self. If you over drink then it is your lookout. If you hurt someone else then your ass is grass. But to blame some bar tender or some bar or some gambling casino because they did not stop to give him a breath test before they served him is absurd. If he over drank then he killed himself. Be there or be square.
For disclosure purposes I own a liquor store.
On one note I would be of the opinion that in general serving a person alcohol is not in of itself cause for a claim for damages. I do not believe a business has a duty to determine what medications / non-obvious pregnancy / legal prohibition from alcohol possession or consumption the consumer is bound by. It is in that case the responsibility of the buyer. That said it does become more mitigated when the buyer shows more obvious signs that the further consumption of alcohol becomes damaging to the person.
It is common knowlege drunks make poor decisions and tend to want more liquor than what is reasonable for them as intoxication grows, hence the obvious overservice rules. Yet, I would suspect there might be a plausable cause for civil action when the family of the patient can articulate they had repeatedly warned the casino the victim was going to suffer ill effects from further consumption of the liquor.
Would a reasonable person have furnished liquor to a person who they had information to believe it would cause physical harm to this person? If this was the case with regard to the casino I can imagine a claim for damages as long as the information of the underlying condition was apparent.
Darren,
It’s good to see you’re back with us adding the sobriety of your well thought out opinions. I trust and hope your medical situation has resolved itself.
I agree with nick spinelli. Two words come to mind whether it’s alcohol, tobacco, drugs or sex….personal responsibility. Period.
Gambling like drugs is a problem that government can’t solve and shouldn’t try to. When I’ve gambled in my life it was with the idea that I was going to lose and I set limits that defined the cost of that entertainment. People delude themselves and are deluded by the Casino’s, that they can beat the odds. People delude themselves unfortunately about many things and that is just the way it is.
Casinos do a lot of over serving that has nothing to do with alcohol.
I can moralize too.
Barkingdog, Please dopn;t assume that he was misusing, abusing, or wrongly prescribed pain meds. If he was a person in ch ronic pain he was most probably getting legit prescriptions. Drinking alcohol with those drugs in your system was a gigantic mistake but his pain medications, absent mixing them with alcohol, was not the issue or problem. We who live in chronic intractable pain have oftentimes only these meds to fall back on and most of the people who take them and the doctors who prescribe them do so legitimately.
He may not have been visibly intoxicated but I agree with those here who have already dais why did the family complain to casino but not get this guy to go back to his room? They could have stayed with him and intercepted the drinks.
“It is a tragedy played out across the country in greater numbers as cities turn to casinos for an infusion of money at a time of budget restraints.”
But we’re going to gamble our way to prosperity, don’tcha know!?
A person can gamble online, they can buy lottery tickets, they can gamble illegally w/ bookies, they can attend dog tracks, horse tracks, and they can go to a casino. Until someone has a gun put to their head and forced to gamble I’m going to go w/ that increasingly rare quality of personal responsibility. I guess I’m just old fsashioned.
Casinos, like the Wall Street Maniacs, are injecting gambling into places it ought not be. They are scabs on the land.
We should gamble in the company of friends in friendly places if we must gamble at all (it can become an addiction). Nevertheless, there are some who can handle it. But luck can change for the worse.
The Wall Street Casino Gambling Gang was recently diagnosed as manic.
Casinos shouldn’t serve any alcohol at all whatsoever. Casinos are run by thieves.
That state ought to outlaw dram shop claims. If you have casinos then you put people at their own responsibility for the gambles they take. This guy was over 21. The family should be countersued for foisting this guy on society. Where were you sonnyboy when daddy was getting drunk and losing his winnings from another romp at the casino. Percocet? What was the date on the bottle and how many pills were left in the bottle? Did he over indulge in the pills. The family ought to sue the doctor for prescribing the Percocet. Did he smoke? The family ought to sue the tobacco companies and the farmers and the fertiizer companies who sold to the farmers. If I were defending this case I would ask some hard questions on voir dire. I would start with: One Mississippi. How many of you folks have gambled in your lives? Two Mississippi. How many of you have drank too much in one sitting? etc
Credit the Doobie Brothers: “What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits.” And we have all manner of providers.
“The case does expose another all-too-common example of the social costs of casinos, which term to make their money on lower income players as opposed to high rollers. Here was a man with little money — and apparently little luck in life — being encouraged to keep playing with a steady stream of alcohol. It is a tragedy played out across the country in greater numbers as cities turn to casinos for an infusion of money at a time of budget restraints.”
That is so true. Unfortunately, we have forces in Massachusetts who are working to get casino gambling in the state:
http://www.boston.com/news/specials/casino/
One would think if the family really ere that concerned about his well being they would have removed him from the casino themselves. I bet there are surveillance videos that will be used by at least one side or the other to show him either acting intoxicated or not.
Even if it turns out that the casino over served I would expect the family to be partly at fault for not removing and the $75 million number is a joke. Even if you totaled up everything this guy might have earned (and his past history makes that suspect) other losses & then triple damages You still are nowhere near that number.
Tragic….. But what is the liability to the casino….. If the family was really worried, why was he there?