SMUTS
Crossing country
Marcus Witter and Michelle Brooks helped lead
the Husker cross country team to high finishes in
the Woody Greeno Invitational. PAGE 10
A&E
Indie Connections
Since 1991, Nebraska Independent Film Projects
has been helping local filmmakers make and
share their work. PAGE 12
September 20, 1999
The Times, They Are
Chance of showers, high 60. C$ tonight, low 35.
Man hurt
in bar
fight gets
new trial
By Jake Bleed
Senior staff writer
The Nebraska Supreme Court ordered a new
trial for a man injured outside a Grand Island bar,
further defining the obligation businesses have for
a customer’s safety.
The court ruled Friday that, because the likeli
hood of a fight at the Round Table bar was fore
seeable, dip bar owed customers “a duty to con
fbrm to the legal standards of reasonable conduct
have repeated^ stated that die owner of a
business is not an insurer of a patron’s safety but
.. does owe a patron a duty of reasonable care,”
Lindsey Miller-Lerman wrote in the opin
ion.
Michael Sacco suffered permanent disabilities
from a fight in foe parking lot of the Round Table
bar Dec. 24,1991, and sued the bar’s owner, Gary
Carothers,
. . fnr npoli.
it- gence.
^ r The bar
The owner oj a did not
i . , employ
business ... does bouncers
owe a patron a duty fight took
r ft place, court
oj reasonable care, documents
said. After
LlNDSEY MILLER-LERMAN drinking for
Supreme Court judge several hours,
Sacco got
into a tight in
the bar with another man, Perry Roeber.
Jeanette Zahm, the lone bartender working that
night, told the men to “take it outside,” the opinion
said. Zahm told the court she felt she owed no
responsibility for customers after they left the bar.
The pair were accompanied outside by Frank
Matthews, a regular customer. The men exchanged
punches, the opinion said, before Sacco slipped on
ice and hit his head.
In previous trials, Sacco’s lawyers submitted
police reports detailing violent incidents at the
Round Table in an attempt to show the forseeabili
ty of violence in and around the bar.
Carothers’ lawyers objected to the inclusion of
the reports, saying they were irrelevant. Hall
County District Court Judge Teresa Luther sus
tained the objection.
The court ruled the reports provided enough
evidence of prior criminal activity to establish
Carothers’ duty to provide Sacco with reasonable
care.
According to previous Supreme Court rulings,
the degree of responsibility an establishment owes
its customers is based on individual situations.
The 30 police reports submitted by Sacco’s
lawyers included incidents involving men armed
with firearms in the bar’s parking lot, a stabbing in
a nearby alley and a complaint made to a police
officer by Round Table employees stating that vio
lent incidents were increasing after a nearby bar
burned down.
Top: DAN CADY, a member of UNL’s racing
team, raced at Eagle Raceway on Saturday
evening. The club is finishing its first season
with a Grand American Model car.
Left: THE UNL NT CREW makes a few adjust
ments the underbody of the Grand American
late model racer at the Eagle Raceway on
Saturday night. The crew also placed weights
underneath the exterior to add more control
and handling on the track.
story by car a pesek
top photo by lii meacham
left photo by nate wagner
5 I
Engineers take to the track
Nearly three years ago,
University of Nebraska-iincoln
engineering department faculty
members wondered how they could
interest students in engineering and
still make it exciting. *
They found the answer in a race
car engineering program that kicked
off this summer and came to its sea
sonal end Saturday night with a
fourth-place finish at Eagle
Raceway.
Three UNL engineering stu
dents participated in the first-year
program, which allowed them to
apply skills they learned in class by
building and maintaining a race car.
The program will continue for
next year’s racing season.
The students’ work paid off this
summer as their red-and-white car
finished first in its division at the
State Fair.
David Astuto, a junior mechani
cal engineering major and program
intern, said he has performed vari
ous jobs, including changing oil,
tuneups and maintenance.
“Basically, we’ve been doing a
lot of work on the car trying to apply
some of what we’ve learned in our
engineering classes and what we’ve
learned from observing what other
drivers and crews do,” Astuto said.
The car, a limited late-model,
Please see RACING on 7
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