Mother Files Suit Against Pub

Beverly Quaye is suing the owner of the Parish Publick House and the owner of the strip mall where the pub is located over the death of her son. According to Quaye, pub owner Erik Granath physically assaulted her son Benjamin before tossing him out of the bar for drunkenness. Quaye tried to stumble back to his residence but fell into a culvert near the adjacent railway tracks. His body was found there by a jogger the next morning.

The Sentinel reports that Granath and Daniel Lester, owner of the Almar Center, deny any responsibility for Quaye’s death. They point out that his blood-alcohol level was .18 and that he showed traces of marijuana in his system. On the night in question, he had just come from a rugby game and was partying raucously with three women. Around midnight Quaye got into a scuffle with Granath, who pinned him to the floor to calm him down. Beverly Quaye now says that this may have blocked his airways, though the coroner’s report shows no indication of this.

Beverly Quaye contends that the bar owners should have shown greater responsibility to her son. Rather than simply ejecting him from the bar, they should have assured that he got home safely. She also claims that Lester, who owns the property, should bear responsibility for his tenants’ actions.

Lester, Granath and the other owners of the Parish Publick House plan to ask the judge to toss out the case. They are hoping to get the same response that the city received earlier this year, when Quaye sued it for $2 million. Back then she argued that the police should have ensured that her son made it home. Read more at the Santa Cruz Sentinel.