29 October 2012

ICBM slugged $130k for beating up a punter

| johnboy
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The Supreme Court’s Justice Sidis has found for Sharon Hopps in her action against the owners of the ICBM night club who could neither find the responsible security guard, nor turn up to court.

In this matter, the plaintiff claimed that in the early hours of 23 May 2009 she was assaulted by a security guard on licensed premises operated by the first and third defendants under the name ICBM in Northbourne Avenue, Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory.

The claim was brought against the first and third defendants as occupiers and operators of the premises and against the third defendant as the employer of the security guard. The proceedings were commenced on 20 July 2011 and duly served on the first and third defendants. The security guard was initially named as a party but the plaintiff was unable to locate him and he was not served. Proceedings against him were discontinued on 14 August 2012.

In the absence of appearance or the filing of any defence, default judgment was entered against the remaining defendants on 27 June 2012 for damages, costs and interest to be assessed. The parties were notified by the Registrar on 14 September 2012 that the matter was to be listed before the court today. The defendants were called at 11 am, the listing time, three times and there was no appearance on their part. In the absence of any communication with the court by the first or third defendants, I acceded to the plaintiff’s request to proceed with an assessment of her claim.

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buzz819 said :

caf said :

So, why wasn’t this investigated for a criminal charge of assault?

How do you know it wasn’t?

Because if it had been, even if it hadn’t gone as far as a charge, I doubt the plaintiff would have had any trouble in serving the bouncer involved.

More ammo for my “there are no classy venues in Canberra” argument .. they just don’t exist, non-sensical really given all the money in this town.

In regards to the comments about the public liability insurer covering it, I very much doubt that will be the case. It there was an insurer involved they would have filed a defence, turned up at Court, etc.

The fact that a Default Judgement was made indicates that ICBM didn’t respond to the claim in any way. If they had an insurer I am sure they would have advised the insurer and the insurer would have taken over carriage of the matter.

While I obviously don’t know the details of the matter, there is always the possibility that ICBM will later deny that they were served with a Statement of Claim, and they could try and get the Judgement put aside (i.e. they would then be able to file a defence and fight the matter).

There is also the remote possibility that the Statement of Claim was served on a staff member who simply threw it in the bin, without telling management, that as happened in the past.

Tetranitrate3:34 pm 31 Oct 12

Also, on chances to recover the money: aside from the rather odd situation of not turning up to court I’m definitely aware of an incident long ago at err… another club where a woman fell on the dance floor and was badly cut by glass. Compensation definitely was paid out in that case and security at club in question is to this day extremely strict about drinks on the dance floor.
However I’m not sure about the amount, it was a pretty long time ago.

Tetranitrate3:26 pm 31 Oct 12

Pitchka said :

Kiron2222 said :

Tetranitrate said :

Personally I used to think it was a bit of a joke, but I was always more the mooseheads sort anyway.

Is that supposed to be a good thing? Mooseheads and ICBM are both the lowest common denominator of Nightlife culture. They are both, by far, the worst nightclubs in this city.

Doesnt explian why MH is packed like a tin or sardines every saturday night. Part owner is a family friend. Hasnt stepped foot in his nightclub for yonks, has others managing it for him whilst he lives quite a plush life style.

Well it’s large and kinda varied with the pub/bar atmosphere downstairs and nightclub upstairs. It’s well staffed so even when it’s packed you’re not waiting forever to get to the bar and the fact that it’s popular with the uni crowd is self perpetuating.

It’s also relatively safe as far as crowded bogan filled nightspots go, there’s security on every floor and they can all quickly convene in the same place if there’s a major incident so even a brawl involving a dozen people will get broken up pretty quickly.
Obviously it’s a trashy, full of (insert invective) and little more than a meat market but it is what it is, and it’s good at being what it is.

Kiron2222 said :

Tetranitrate said :

Personally I used to think it was a bit of a joke, but I was always more the mooseheads sort anyway.

Is that supposed to be a good thing? Mooseheads and ICBM are both the lowest common denominator of Nightlife culture. They are both, by far, the worst nightclubs in this city.

Doesnt explian why MH is packed like a tin or sardines every saturday night. Part owner is a family friend. Hasnt stepped foot in his nightclub for yonks, has others managing it for him whilst he lives quite a plush life style.

KB1971 said :

Muttsybignuts said :

I love Pandoras and her Jolly Jugs…

You ARE old……..

I might add, every time I go to a meeting in “In Blue” the Jolly Jugs tune rolls through my head………

Muttsybignuts said :

I love Pandoras and her Jolly Jugs…

You ARE old……..

RedDogInCan said :

maxblues said :

130k for being roughed up by a bouncer… there must be some punters around town thinking they are worth a fortune.

The headline is misleading. The court has only agreed to assess her claim. In order to get the $130k claimed, she would have to demonstrate the loss and suffering caused by the incident was worth that amount and the court would have to agree.

If you read the ruling, the assessment has been done at $130k awarded to her.

Pretty sure this will be covered by liability insurance by the venue, not out of their own pocket (but their premiums are sure to rise).

maxblues said :

130k for being roughed up by a bouncer… there must be some punters around town thinking they are worth a fortune.

The headline is misleading. The court has only agreed to assess her claim. In order to get the $130k claimed, she would have to demonstrate the loss and suffering caused by the incident was worth that amount and the court would have to agree.

130k for being roughed up by a bouncer… there must be some punters around town thinking they are worth a fortune. As the old blues song goes…”If trouble was money…I’d be a millionaire”.

devils_advocate11:10 am 31 Oct 12

caf said :

So, why wasn’t this investigated for a criminal charge of assault?

Without knowing the details of the case, likely explanations could be lack of sufficient evidence to prove requisite intent/harm to criminal standard (as opposed to civil); need for DPP to form the view that prosecution is in the public interest (including having regard to allocating resources to more serious crimes that would be on the books at any given time).

caf said :

So, why wasn’t this investigated for a criminal charge of assault?

How do you know it wasn’t?

So, why wasn’t this investigated for a criminal charge of assault?

Muttsybignuts9:36 pm 30 Oct 12

I love Pandoras and her Jolly Jugs…

Yeah I don’t like her chances of recovering the money.

Tetranitrate7:39 pm 30 Oct 12

NoImRight said :

Tetranitrate said :

NoImRight said :

ICBM will cease to be and a new name will appear. The new owners will have close links with the old but not close enough to be liable for this.

That doesn’t get the present owner off the hook though, and assets transferred or otherwise disposed of just prior to bankruptcy can be clawed back by the courts. There’ll be many a day in court ahead but given they’ve come this far I doubt the plaintiff will be giving up anytime soon.

Yes night club owners/managers would have no experience in preparing for bankruptcy or hiding assets. The “present owner” will prove to have an array of companies that hold, somehow, no assets or income. Failing to appear was not an indication of indifference to the outcome it was just some wacky oversight.

I ought to have read the judgement actually – for some reason I’d assumed the party was the person themselves but it’s not – rather it’s a trust or somesuch. That being said it’s still going to cause them a decent level of inconvenience.

johnboy said :

Kiron2222 said :

Is that supposed to be a good thing? Mooseheads and ICBM are both the lowest common denominator of Nightlife culture. They are both, by far, the worst nightclubs in this city.

Big call. There’s some real competition out there.

But we’re not going to do a worst night club in Canberra thread if only because night club owners get very pissy about that sort of thing.

Should I not post a caricature of Mohammed either then?

Tetranitrate said :

NoImRight said :

ICBM will cease to be and a new name will appear. The new owners will have close links with the old but not close enough to be liable for this.

That doesn’t get the present owner off the hook though, and assets transferred or otherwise disposed of just prior to bankruptcy can be clawed back by the courts. There’ll be many a day in court ahead but given they’ve come this far I doubt the plaintiff will be giving up anytime soon.

Yes night club owners/managers would have no experience in preparing for bankruptcy or hiding assets. The “present owner” will prove to have an array of companies that hold, somehow, no assets or income. Failing to appear was not an indication of indifference to the outcome it was just some wacky oversight.

NoImRight said :

ICBM will cease to be and a new name will appear. The new owners will have close links with the old but not close enough to be liable for this.

Your onto it, pretty creative the old ICBM/North/Meche owners 🙂 or maybe this time they will suffer in their jocks

Tetranitrate said :

Kiron2222 said :

Tetranitrate said :

Personally I used to think it was a bit of a joke, but I was always more the mooseheads sort anyway.

Is that supposed to be a good thing? Mooseheads and ICBM are both the lowest common denominator of Nightlife culture. They are both, by far, the worst nightclubs in this city.

I’d suggest that both Shooters and Academy are much worse.
Obviously it’s trashy but when you’re a uni student and all your mates are out it’s not hard to have a good time.
Also the Thursday night crowd really was overwhelmingly uni students in 06/07/08. Hour of power with $1 drinks and whatnot… good times.

Arguing over what horrendous club is the worst. Cant we all agree that they are all equally as bad?

Tetranitrate5:10 pm 30 Oct 12

NoImRight said :

ICBM will cease to be and a new name will appear. The new owners will have close links with the old but not close enough to be liable for this.

That doesn’t get the present owner off the hook though, and assets transferred or otherwise disposed of just prior to bankruptcy can be clawed back by the courts. There’ll be many a day in court ahead but given they’ve come this far I doubt the plaintiff will be giving up anytime soon.

Tetranitrate5:08 pm 30 Oct 12

Kiron2222 said :

Tetranitrate said :

Personally I used to think it was a bit of a joke, but I was always more the mooseheads sort anyway.

Is that supposed to be a good thing? Mooseheads and ICBM are both the lowest common denominator of Nightlife culture. They are both, by far, the worst nightclubs in this city.

I’d suggest that both Shooters and Academy are much worse.
Obviously it’s trashy but when you’re a uni student and all your mates are out it’s not hard to have a good time.
Also the Thursday night crowd really was overwhelmingly uni students in 06/07/08. Hour of power with $1 drinks and whatnot… good times.

Am i surprised? Not at all

Will she get the money? I doubt it.

Kiron2222 said :

Is that supposed to be a good thing? Mooseheads and ICBM are both the lowest common denominator of Nightlife culture. They are both, by far, the worst nightclubs in this city.

Big call. There’s some real competition out there.

But we’re not going to do a worst night club in Canberra thread if only because night club owners get very pissy about that sort of thing.

Tetranitrate said :

Personally I used to think it was a bit of a joke, but I was always more the mooseheads sort anyway.

Is that supposed to be a good thing? Mooseheads and ICBM are both the lowest common denominator of Nightlife culture. They are both, by far, the worst nightclubs in this city.

ICBM will cease to be and a new name will appear. The new owners will have close links with the old but not close enough to be liable for this.

I could be wrong, but is this the incident where the woman was in a toilet cubicle and the security guard pushed the door open, hitting her?

I am somewhat surprised that there isn’t an insurer involved, who should have filed a defence, etc. and made an appearance.

The problem with a lot of default judgementswhere there is not an insurer involved is that it is quite a pain to get the money out of the defendant/s. Without knowing anything about the defendant’s financial situation it may take the plaintiff forever and a day to actually get some money in her hand, if she ever does.

Tetranitrate3:31 pm 30 Oct 12

XO_VSOP said :

The owners didn’t show up? Just like her money wont!

She’ll be able to get garnish orders and the like. I do believe they’re quite screwed now.

There’s always been something wrong with ICBM and the way it was run: security was always unnecessarily aggressive and used to do stupid things like turf out random guys for no reason and deliberately trying to break up mixed groups trying to enter (ie: ‘durr girls can come in but you guys look too drunk). Not to mention more generally telling people they were too drunk at the door when they hadn’t had a drink at all. Personally I used to think it was a bit of a joke, but I was always more the mooseheads sort anyway.

I don’t go out much now, but did a fair bit from about 2006-2010 and never ever had any trouble at any other bars or clubs yet would occasionally be asked to leave ICBM, once because apparently my hair was too long. (only went there in the first place because lots of people from the college I was at did).
I just laughed and went elsewhere, but I’d imagine this sort of rubbish is why things like:
http://the-riotact.com/bombs-detonated-in-two-canberra-nightclubs/37871
happen.

It wouldn’t surprise me if this judgement is the end of the place, though given they didn’t bother to show up to court perhaps that’s immanent anyway. Good riddance either way.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd2:51 pm 30 Oct 12

Great news.

Isn’t that the old Private Bin? What a fantastic achievement, to make the Bin look like it was a classy joint. Congrats to all concerned.

Does the floor in there still feel like it’s been recently painted with Clag glue?

The owners didn’t show up? Just like her money wont!

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