Sunday, February 09, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Woman wins verdict in steakhouse suit
Lone Star to pay settlement based on jury award for back injuries
By GLENN PUIT
REVIEW-JOURNAL
A Clark County jury handed out a $5 million civil verdict last week in the civil trial of a woman who slipped and fell at a Lone Star Steakhouse in Las Vegas in 1999.
But that $5 million verdict does not represent the amount of money that Lone Star will pay to valley resident Betsy Abregoneptune.
Attorneys for both Abregoneptune and Lone Star privately reached a confidential settlement, the amount of which was determined by the size of the award the jury returned Wednesday.
What that means is that the amount of money Abregoneptune will receive is probably much smaller than $5 million.
"We agreed confidentially to resolve this case if they would agree not to appeal and they would change their policies," said Abregoneptune's attorney, Bradley Mainor.
Lone Star's local counsel in the case, David Barron, could not be reached for comment.
Mainor declined to discuss the exact amount of the settlement, which stems from an accident at the Lone Star at Cheyenne Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard in 1999.
In an interview Thursday, Abregoneptune, 50, said she went to the steakhouse for an anniversary dinner with her husband. While walking out of a restroom, she hit a slippery spot and fell.
"There was something on the floor and I went flying," said the mother of two.
The fall injured her back and she has since endured two back surgeries. She is expected to have another, and she said she takes pain medication daily.
"It has changed my life entirely and I'm never going to be the same person again," she said.
Mainor and his father, Randall, alleged that Lone Star subsequently tried to cover up certain facts of the case.
"There were missing documents, missing witnesses, erased tapes," Bradley Mainor said.
Following a weeks-long trial in the courtroom of District Judge Valorie Vega, a jury on Tuesday night returned a verdict of $5 million. The jury determined that Lone Star was 62 percent liable for the fall, translating into a liability of about $3.1 million.
The settlement was reached with the understanding that Lone Star will not appeal.
