Jury orders bar and bouncer to pay damages for fatal scuffle

By Mike Deibert

NEWMARKET—The owners of an Orillia strip club and its bouncer were ordered in late November to share payment of $2.6 million in damages in a lawsuit launched after a 42-year-old Milton dentist died when he was knocked to the ground in the bar’s parking lot in July, 2004.

David Dumencu, a father of three, was outside the Atherley Arms Tavern in Orillia, where he had been drinking with friends after an annual golfing trip, when he was knocked down during a scuffle involving patrons who had come out of the bar. Dumencu had a high alcohol content in his blood.

The jury ordered $3.1 million in damages after finding in favour of the dead man’s widow Susan Dumencu at the conclusion of the trial. It found the numbered company that owned the club 35 per cent liable, operator Lea Hellerman 35 per cent, and bouncer Adam Holland 15 per cent. The family was entitled to $2.6 million instead of all the damages, because David Dumencu was found 15 per cent liable.

"Bar owners must now be aware that they have obligations to patrons to see that they are safe, including training bar staff and bouncers to deal appropriately with disruptive patrons both inside and outside the bar," the plaintiff’s lawyer Barbara MacFarlane told The Globe and Mail after the trial.

MacFarlane, who is with the Toronto firm Torkin Manes LLP, argued at trial that the tavern had served too much alcohol to the victim and did not properly supervise staff or train them how to deal with dangerous situations.

She also said the tavern refused to call an ambulance, closing the bar and turning off the lights while Dumencu lay in a pool of blood.

The defendants argued that Dumencu was belligerent after drinking too much and provoked the fatal disturbance.

Their lawyer, Dan Reisler, told the Milton Canadian Champion that there would likely be an appeal.

In a criminal trial held earlier, Holland was acquitted of manslaughter.