Lawyer loses his finger.
Lawyer’s Finger Severed at Popular Bar
Whenever alcohol is involved some odd things can happen, and most of the time they aren’t very good. That’s what Virginia attorney Robert Dyer found out in 2012, and what caused him to sue Smith Point, a bar in Washington D.C. when he lost his finger. It’s an interesting case that’s a bit hard to unravel, but we’ll try to keep things as easy to understand as possible.
The Lost Finger
When the attorney arrived at the bar, his suit alleges that he had already had seven drinks. He arrived at Smith Point when it was just shortly before closing time, and when it was time to close, he had to pay the bar’s $30 minimum for using a credit card. At that point, he had only bought $12 worth of drinks, which left him $18 short of the minimum.
Already intoxicated, he decided that instead of ordering nonalcoholic drinks or ordering drinks for others, he would order three vodka and Red Bull shots. This put a lot of alcohol and a lot of energy into him at the end of the night, and that’s when things went from bad to worse.
The lawsuit claims that the bartenders should have known that by that point, Dyer was too intoxicated and should not have been given any more drinks. However, he says that he was able to drink the rest of the drinks, which seems to have been a bad decision on his part as well, as he could have paid in cash or he could have simply decided not to drink them on his own. However, you need to remember that he had been drinking even before he reached this bar, so he was probably not thinking straight from the minute he walked into the place.
After he continued to drink, he allegedly started to become a problem in the establishment. This led the bouncers to have to remove him from the bar. During this point, when the bouncers removed him from the bar, he placed his hand on the wooden door for support, but once of the bouncers then closed the door on his hand. It was at that point that they severed the pinky from his left hand.
Because Dyer was so intoxicated at the time though, he didn’t even notice that he was missing a finger. He stumbled out of the bar and went to the ATM to get money for a cab. It was at that point that a police officer found him and saw that he was covered in blood and was continuing to bleed. Since he didn’t notice that he had lost the finger and too much time had passed, the doctors were unable to reattach it.
Thus, Dyer is suing the bar for $500,000 for continuing to give him drinks and for severing his finger. As mentioned, alcohol can have some nasty effects, but people rarely expect that they will end up losing a finger from drinking too much!