Jury Awards $18.74 Million for Brain Injury in Pete's Bar Assault

In 2012, Joshua Mathews was leaving Pete's Bar in Neptune Beach when he was sucker punched on the sidewalk outside. He had no memory of the night. The blow knocked him to the ground, and his skull cracked against the pavement.

Mathews spent the next two months in a coma. He needed surgery on his brain, ran up more than $1 million in medical bills, and faced a long course of speech and physical therapy. Years later he was still in rehabilitation for the traumatic brain injury.

Michael Pajcic of Pajcic & Pajcic sued the bar's parent company, Jensen's Liquor Store Inc., in May 2013. The complaint argued that Pete's failed to keep adequate security on hand and failed to properly train and supervise its bouncers, and that the bouncers helped instigate the fight rather than stop it. Pajcic pointed out that competing bars stationed off-duty officers out front on weekend nights, while Pete's did not.

The case went to trial in the fall of 2016. On October 25, a Duval County Circuit Court jury returned a verdict of $18,740,000 against the bar.

The same jury also assigned Mathews 40 percent of the fault, because his blood alcohol level was above the legal limit that night, even though he never threw a punch. Under Florida's comparative fault rules, the court reduced the judgment to $11,244,000.

The defense took the case up on appeal. In 2018, the two sides settled for a little less than $11.2 million, and the bar's insurer paid the full amount even though it ran past the policy limits. Pajcic said he hoped the outcome would send "a message to other area bars about protecting their patrons."