CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The parents of a 20-year-old Middleburg Heights woman who was "catastrophically injured" in a St. Patrick's Day fall inside a Warehouse District bar have filed a lawsuit accusing the bar, its owners, security guards and other organizations of negligence.
The owners of Spirits bar and the development group that owns the building on West 6th Street failed to repair a faulty second-floor railing before the railing gave way and Megan Keefe fell headfirst about 15 feet and struck her head on a granite railing on the bar's first floor, according to the lawsuit filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Monday.
The lawsuit also accuses a bartender of picking up the unconscious Keefe after the fall, dragging her outside and laying on the concrete in front of the bar, where an off-duty paramedic attended to her until Cleveland EMS got to the scene, the lawsuit says.
Keefe has racked up more than $1 million in medical costs and has remained unconscious at an assisted-living facility in Parma since the fall and requires complete assistance for all daily activities, according to a June 5 magistrate's filling in Cuyahoga County Probate Court.
The lawsuit estimates Keefe's lifelong medical costs will exceed $10 million.
Keefe struck her head on the granite railing that separates the VIP area from the regular bar area. The impact ripped a chunk of granite off the railing and left Keefe with a brain bleed and fractures to her skull, vertebrae and eye socket.
The railing was faulty when The Dalad Group and WD Downtown Ltd. leased the building to George Nakhye, who operates Spirits, the lawsuit claims.
Neither organization tried to fix the railing before opening the bar up to the public, and allowing customers upstairs, the lawsuit says.
Cleveland Fire Department building inspectors in the days after the fall cited the bar for having an unsafe railing on the second floor.
The bar also was not certified to have patrons on the second floor. Other citations included that the bar had an obstructed exit, and out-of-date fire extinguishers and sprinkler system. The abatement order caused the bar to be shut down temporarily.
The suit was filed by four lawyers on behalf of Keefe's parents, Brian and Kimberlie Keefe.
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