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22 • Touchline • Issue 17
NIGHTCLUB
LEFT HOWLING
FOLLOWING
BAR ROOM BRAWL
he Queensland Supreme
Court recently awarded
$1.4 million in damages
to a patron who suffered
severe facial and physical injuries as
well as a significant psychiatric injury as
a result of being struck by an employee
of Howl at the Moon Broadbeach Pty Ltd
(the Defendant) during a fight outside a
nightclub on the Gold Coast.
On the night of the incident, Mr Lamble
had been attending his employer’s
Christmas party at the Defendant’s
nightclub. The party started at 7pm
and, during the course of the evening, a
brawl erupted between attendees of the
Christmas party and nightclub employees.
The scuffle commenced when a patron
smashed a glass bottle in the toilets
and emerged with the broken bottle
threatening to cut someone. As security
was absent from this area of the bar, two
of the nightclub managers asked the man
to step outside where he was detained
by the three security guards at the front
of the club.
This patron’s ejection was the catalyst
for other members of the party to come
to their friend’s ‘defence’, with a bottle
being thrown at one of the two nightclub
managers. The manager then put this
person in a headlock. In the course of
his evidence at the hearing, the manager,
a Mr Zulli alleged that he was then set
upon by others.
T
James McIntyre
, Special
Counsel, and
Emma Baker
,
Senior Associate with DLA
Piper Australia explore
a recent case where
employees emulated the
actions of a manager
leading to vicarious
liability for the company.
DLA Piper:
T
+61 7 3246 4138
E
james.mcintyre@dlapiper.com
Lamble v Howl at the Moon Broadbeach Pty Ltd [2013] QSC 244
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