Holbrook Mohn, Associated Press
A gambling company has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit that claims a Mississippi casino served a heavily medicated man so many free drinks that he collapsed in the bathroom of his hotel room and died.
The lawsuit against IP Casino Resort and Spa in Biloxi was filed in U.S. District Court in Gulfport in July and seeks damages of $75 million.
The suit claims casino workers ignored pleas from Bryan Lee Glenn’s relatives in August 2009 and continued serving him free drinks well after he was visibly intoxicated.
The casino, formerly known as Imperial Palace, changed hands after Glenn’s death. Boyd Gaming bought the property in 2011.
Boyd Gaming argues in court filings this week that “Mississippi law is abundantly clear that one injured as a result of his own voluntary intoxication has no viable claim against a casino which served him alcohol.”
Michael Holleman, lawyer for Glenn’s relatives, didn’t respond to a message seeking comment on the filing.
Mississippi has a “dram shop” law that says businesses can be held liable if they serve alcohol to someone who is drunk and that person later injures or kills someone else.
But Boyd Gaming sites a 1986 case, Cuevas v. Royal D’Iberville Hotel, in which the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled a business is not liable when a person voluntarily drinks “and then by reason of his inebriated condition, injures himself.”
In the 1986 case, a woman said the hotel lounge served her alcoholic beverages after she was visibly drunk, a factor that contributed to her fall over a railing to the hotel lobby floor 30 feet below. She was seriously injured.
In the lawsuit against Boyd Gaming, Glenn’s relatives claim they pleaded with casino employees to cut him off from alcohol because he was on medication for physical and mental ailments.
