$250,000 awarded for loss of eye
Jury says inn negligent for letting worker take glass outside
- Publication: The Morning Call
- Date: 1988
- By: John Clark’
A former Coopersburg man has been awarded $250,000 in damages by a Lehigh County Court judge after a jury found the Spring Valley Inn negligent in an incident that cost the man his right eye.
Ronald Riccio sued the inn in 1984. According to his attorney, Todd Miller of Allentown, the suit was prompted by an incident that happened on the night of July 16-17, 1983.
The defendants in the suit were Marygreen Inc., trading as the Spring Valley Inn, Bethlehem R.4; Christine Gelsbach, an employee of the bar, and Carole Wilkie, an employee and daughter of the owners. Miller said the inn is owned by Dr. Alex Green and Mary Green.
Judge James Knoll Gardner, who resided over the seven-day trial, said the award was the fourth largest he has seen in his seven years as a judge. Gardner handles the majority of civil cases in Lehigh County.
Miller said the incident started in the inn and ended early on the morning of July 17 in an upper parking lot at the inn when Wilkie pressed a wine glass in Riccio’s face. He said the glass broke, and a piece “severely cut Riccio’s eyeball.”
The lawyer said Riccio had gone to the bar on the night of July 16 to discuss his live-in arrangements with Wilkie. However, Wilkie was tired and irritable and didn’t want to talk about the relationship, Miller said.
As the night wore on, Miller said, although Riccio became visibly intoxicated he was still served by bartender Gelsbach. Miller also said that Wilkie, who reportedly had been placed in a supervisory capacity at the bar by the Greens, also was served while she was visibly intoxicated.
Miller argued that the inn was guilty of negligence because it served Riccio and Wilkie when they were visibly intoxicated and that it was negligent in allowing Wilkie to leave the inn with the glass of wine.
Miller said Wilkie didn’t deny leaving the bar with the wine glass after the bar’s closing details had been attended to.
Miller said the testimony showed that when Wilkie left the bar, she went to the upper parking lot where she encountered Gelsbach and Douglas Brown. They were sitting in a vehicle, he said.
Riccio, who apparently followed Wilkie to the upper parking lot, claims that he was hit in the face with the glass when he attempted to get Wilkie out of the vehicle. He contended that he pulled her by the shoulder, but not forcefully.
Wilkie, according to Miller, testified that she was holding the glass of wine when Riccio forcefully dragged her from the car. He said she testified that he pulled her by the hair and shoulder and that she tossed the glass over her shoulder in self-defense.
Miller contended that the behavior of both Riccio and Wilkie would have been different had they not been intoxicated. About Wilkie, Miller said, “She would not have thrown the glass in his face if she had not been intoxicated. She would have used better judgment.”
Miller also contended that the incident would never have happened had Wilkie not had the wine glass. “Had the glass not been brought, the glass could not have been used,” he said.
Before the case went to the jury late Friday afternoon, Wilkie was removed, by mutual consent, as a defendant. She was represented by Allentown attorney W. Hamlin Neely.
The inn and its owners were represented by Philadelphia attorney S. David Fineman.
Miller said the jury deliberated for about 2½ hours Friday. He said the jury concluded that neither Wilkie nor Riccio had been served while visibly intoxicated. The panel did find, however, that Wilkie left the bar with the glass of wine.
Therefore, under the comparative negligence law, Miller said, the jury found that Wilkie, as an employee of the bar, was 50 percent responsible for the incident and that Riccio was 50 percent responsible “for following her around.”
The jury awarded Riccio $500,000, but that amount was halved by Judge Gardner to reflect Riccio’s percentage of negligence.
