A state appeals panel has reversed a $41 million verdict in favor of a man who is a quadriplegic following injuries sustained in a 2015 scuffle with bouncers at a bar in Plano.
The underlying incident began late Nov. 13, 2015, at Q Bar in Plano, in far southwest suburban Kendall County. According to court documents, Logan Bland and his friend, Kyle George, were Q Bar regulars. After bartenders cut off an intoxicated Bland from additional alcohol, he got into a dispute with George. Bar staff separated the men, and the bar manager sent Bland to her office. After Bland returned to the bar he resumed arguing with George and the altercation turned physical.
Court records say after Bland fell to the floor, three bar employees tried to keep George from kicking Bland and, with a fourth employee, tried to carry Bland outside. Bland resisted eviction, he and three employees fell through a door and he began kicking at the employees. Staff returned Bland to the building and called 911, but reported he was uncooperative with paramedics as well as staff at Valley West Hospital.
After being transferred to Central DuPage Hospital, Bland complained of neck pain and said he couldn’t move his legs. A CT scan showed misaligned spinal bones. After traction failed to realign Bland’s spine, surgery followed. He remains paralyzed.
Bland sued Q-West, which owns Q Bar, as well as various medical providers. Those providers either settled or were voluntarily dismissed.
At trial, a jury ruled in favor of Bland’s one-count negligence complaint and awarded damages of more than $51 million. However, the jury also found Bland to be 20% at fault for his injuries and reduced the damage award to $41 million.
Q-West asked Judge Kendall County Judge Stephen Krentz for a new trial. When he rejected that request, the company sought relief from the Illinois Second District Appellate Court, which issued its opinion Jan. 10.
Justice Robert McLaren wrote the panel’s opinion; Justices Susan Hutchinson and Ann Jorgensen concurred.
According to McLaren, Q-West’s main argument was that Judge Krentz erred by refusing a request to add self defense to a list of affirmative defenses. Bland rested his case June 28, 2021, but the next day won leave to file a seventh amended complaint, dropping four original specific claims of negligent actions to add five new claims. At the conference where Krentz granted leave to file that amendment, Krentz wouldn’t let Q-West make the self-defense argument, despite testimony from a security employee who said Bland kicked him in the throat and chin.
“This issue could have been potentially raised a very long time ago,” Krentz said at the time. “It should have been raised before the trial began. It should have been raised last Friday when we did argue the additional affirmative defense issue. It wasn’t raised then.”
The appeals panel said the ruling amounted to an abuse of discretion. Although Krentz decided it would be unfair to Bland to let Q-West change its defense after Bland rested, McLaren wrote Krentz nonetheless “allowed Bland to amend his complaint, including by adding the nebulous ‘manhandled Logan Bland during the removal process,’ after Q-West had begun to put on its case.”
Furthermore, Bland listed as potential witnesses bar workers who, prior to the trial, gave video depositions that he kicked them. That video was played for the jury before Q-West asked to add self defense to its filing, which the panel said gave Bland time to call witnesses to rebut that testimony if needed.
Denying Q-West a chance to respond to a new claim, the panel determined, is an error worthy of a new trial. The panel further agreed with, though didn’t analyze, the argument Judge Krentz also erred by not giving the jury instructions regarding self defense.
The panel also said Krentz erred by excluding from jury instructions the allegation that Bland kicked at Q-West employees. McLaren said trial evidence showed this to be an “amply supported theory” and further agreed Krentz improperly rejected disclosures from Bland’s medical expert that Q-West argued supported its position on his liability for the injuries. That error then led to another error, the refusal to give jury instructions regarding the concept of “sole proximate cause.”
Because the medical expert testified about the influence of paramedics and emergency physicians, the panel said, the jury should’ve been allowed to consider whether that was a factor in Bland’s paralysis.
The panel also agreed with Q-West’s argument that Bland’s attorneys shouldn’t have been allowed to use “a ‘dummy’ constructed of materials purchased from a Home Depot store as a demonstrative exhibit to illustrate his characterization of what occurred to Bland.” Had it been used during the trial, Q-West could’ve cross-examined the accuracy of the demonstration. While that alone wouldn’t warrant a new trial, McLaren wrote, “we do conclude that the decision was erroneous.”
Justices likewise said Q-West’s other cumulative contentions, such as that Bland’s legal team improperly relied on the bar’s employee manual, while spotlighting improper legal arguments, do not need to be considered as sufficient to order a new trial, as the larger arguments proved sufficient.
Bland has been represented by attorneys Daniel K. Cetina, of Walsh, Knippen & Cetina, of Wheaton; John M. Power and Sara M. Davis, of Cogan & Power, and Michael W. Rathsack, of Chicago
Representing Q-West are attorneys Robert M. Burke, Garrett L. Boehm Jr. and David M. Macksey, of the Johnson & Bell firm, of Chicago.