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Mogambo Inc. seeks dismissal of Grizzard’s lawsuit
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Posted on Jul 08 1999
The former Cafe Mogambo in Garapan has asked the Superior Court to dismiss the negligence lawsuit filed by lawyer James Grizzard in connection with a 1993 incident that caused his injuries.
Grizzard, in suing Mogambo, alleged that its innkeeper has failed to fulfill his duty to care for customers.
The case arose from an incident in August 1993 when another lawyer Ted Mitchell pushed Grizzard onto a cigarette machine.
The case has been under litigation for four years now.
Citing an earlier Supreme Court doctrine, Mogambo’s lawyer Steve Pixley noted that “the proprietor is not an insurer of his patrons.”
Mogambo said a tavern keeper is “only liable for negligence in receiving or harboring guests of known violent or vicious propensities.”
“There is no credible evidence in the record to indicate that Mitchell’s attack on Grizzard was reasonably foreseeable to anyone including Mogambo,” Pixley stated in a motion for summary judgment filed Tuesday.
Pixley said that “there is no evidence in the record that Mr. Mitchell has a known propensity for fighting.”
There was, however, a previous incident indicating that Mitchell could be “verbally abusive without physically violent,” according to Pixley, who described Mitchell as a “loudmouth.”
“There is no evidence of anyone warning Mogambo that this incident would take place,” Pixley said.
