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February 12, 2012

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Court revives claim of bystanders at Harrah’s biker brawl

By Cy Ryan (contact)

Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009 | 4:47 p.m.

CARSON CITY – The Nevada Supreme Court has allowed five people to revive their suit against Harrah’s Laughlin Hotel and Casino involving a brawl between two biker gangs in 2002.

The five were bystanders and sued the hotel-casino on grounds they suffered physical and emotional harm as a result of the fight between the Hell’s Angels and the Mongols in which three people were killed.

Others who were at the scene also filed suit in federal and state courts but the decisions went in favor of Harrah’s.

District Judge Susan Johnson, who took over the case, ruled the decisions in the other cases precluded the five from pursuing their suits.

But the Supreme Court, in a unanimous 32-page opinion written by Justice Mark Gibbons, said these five persons were not barred because their interests were not adequately represented in the other cases filed by other people.

Gibbons wrote that Judge Johnson based her pre-trial ruling in favor of Harrah’s on a prior federal law. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled after Johnson’s decision and changed the standard. Gibbons said that decision was required to be applied retroactively.

Those who will be allowed to pursue their suits are Michael Bower, Kathy and Steven Fuller and Andrea and Dean Daniels.

The Supreme Court also overturned the ruling that Harrah’s should be granted $317,621 in attorney fees and $30,788 in costs. The casino was permitted to keep a small portion of the award because it won its case against two other persons.

The court upheld Judge Johnson in her ruling in favor of Harrah’s, which was sued by Robert Garcia and Noi Lewis, who were guests at Harrah’s. But they were arrested by Metro Police.

They were detained for several hours and officers denied Garcia his request to return to his room for his evening dose of seizure medication. He then suffered two seizures before an ambulance took him to the hospital. The two sued.

The court said the harm suffered by the two was not the fault of Harrah’s. Justice Gibbons wrote that “a reasonable trier of fact could not find for Garcia and Lewis regarding their negligence claims against Harrah’s and Harrah’s is therefore entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”

The court said Garcia and Lewis had settled their federal court case against Metro.

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