HOUSTON -- The 14th Court of Appeals has affirmed a summary judgment win in favor of Golden Nugget Lake Charles in a lawsuit brought after an intoxicated man with no pants on jumped off a ledge and died two days later.
The lawsuit was brought by Tequalla Randle, the widow of Julian Randle. On Feb. 12, 2022, Tequalla and Julian visited the Golden Nugget in Lake Charles, where they were staying for the weekend, according to the court’s Oct. 27 opinion.
After consuming alcohol at the Blue Martini restaurant inside Golden Nugget, Julian was seen by a Golden Nugget security guard exiting the restaurant and appearing confused. Although the security guard intended to escort him to his room in the hotel, he entered a bathroom and the security guard left to attend to an unrelated matter somewhere else.
“The next time a Golden Nugget employee saw Julian was not long thereafter on the second floor of the parking garage, where he was standing near a vehicle naked from the waist down,” the opinion states. “When Golden Nugget’s employees approached Julian, he unexpectedly ran away from them and jumped over a forty-two-inch concrete barrier inside the parking garage, landing four feet below on an adjacent tin roof.
“Even though Golden Nugget’s employees yelled at Julian to stop, he ran towards the edge of the roof and went over the edge, falling twenty-five feet to the ground. Tragically, Julian died from his injuries two days later.”
Julian’s family filed suit against Golden Nugget, alleging the casino was negligent when it encountered an intoxicated Julian near a bathroom and failed to escort him to his room.
Court records show Golden Nugget filed a combined no-evidence and traditional motion for summary judgment, arguing that it had immunity under Louisiana’s Anti-Dram Shop Act and that the plaintiffs could not present any evidence of duty, breach, or proximate causation.
The trial court granted Golden Nugget’s motion without specifying the basis for its ruling, and the plaintiffs appealed, arguing the trial court erred, court records show.
Justices concluded that the plaintiffs failed to present a scintilla of evidence showing that Golden Nugget took an affirmative act that increased the peril to Julian, affirming the trial court’s ruling.
“Here, (the plaintiff) complains of Golden Nugget’s failure to act and escort Julian to his room after seeing him intoxicated immediately after exiting the Blue Martini, but this is not an affirmative act,” the opinion states. “Because (the plaintiff) failed to provide any evidence establishing that Golden Nugget took any affirmative act that increased the chances of the incident in question, we conclude that the trial court properly granted Golden Nugget’s no evidence motion for summary judgment …”
Appeals case No. 14-24-00595-CV
