Below is the lawsuit, captioned Scarimbolo v. The Dram Shop, Index No. 503141/2014, recently filed by “Sopranos” actor Adam Scarimbolo against The Dram Shop Bar and an as-yet unnamed bartender.
Plaintiff alleges that, “while at the Dram Shop, several unruly and heavily intoxicated patrons became enraged and violent towards Plaintiff simply because a couple of women who had accompanied those patrons had engaged Plaintiff in friendly conversation”, but that the bartender failed to protect Mr. Scarimbolo and in fact made the situation worse by offering everyone free shots of alcohol and ejecting plaintiff and his aggressors, resulting in the continuation of the beating.
The complaint notes the irony arising from the fact that the defendant bar’s name (the Dram Shop) echoes the New York Dram Shop Act (N.Y. General Obligations Law § 11-101), which provides, in relevant part:
Any person who shall be injured in person, property, means of support, or otherwise by any intoxicated person, or by reason of the intoxication of any person, whether resulting in his death or not, shall have a right of action against any person who shall, by unlawful selling to or unlawfully assisting in procuring liquor for such intoxicated person, have caused or contributed to such intoxication; and in any such action such person shall have a right to recover actual and exemplary damages.
Plaintiff seeks recovery under theories of negligence, negligent supervision/training/retention, and prima facie tort.