Battle builds over responsibility for death at restaurant

Tiger Woods’ girlfriend slams claims in lawsuit

While Tiger Woods no longer is accused in a wrongful death lawsuit, a battle is intensifying over who’s at fault in the December death of a bartender from a Jupiter business with ties to the golf legend.

The case began two months ago when the estate of Nicholas Immesberger targeted Woods, his girlfriend Erica Herman, and The Woods Jupiter restaurant. Then last month, the estate’s lawyers backed off the claims the golfer shared responsibility for Immesberger’s fatal car crash.

But since then, both sides have accused each other of playing dirty with allegations of destroying critical evidence and other improper tactics. Herman, listed as the restaurant’s director of operations, even wants to hit the estate’s attorneys with financial sanctions for making “utterly frivolous” claims.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Lisa Small must sort it all out. The next hearing is set for Sept. 27, concerning Herman’s bid to dismiss the entire claim against her.

According to the latest version of the lawsuit, The Woods’ owners, managers and employees knew Immesberger, 24, suffered from alcoholism, but still let him drink at the bar for three hours following his Dec. 10 shift.

There’s no dispute that Immesberger, while driving north on Federal Highway in Martin County, lost control of his sports car, crashed and died. He had a blood-alcohol level of .256, or more than three times the 0.08 legal limit to drive.

The estate, however, accuses the restaurant’s managers and employees of not only ignoring Immesberger’s problem, but “over-serving him alcohol to the point of severe intoxication and then sending him out to his car to drive home.”

Herman and Woods were not present that night, but the lawsuit still attempts to hold her partially responsible because of her alleged leadership role at the establishment. Woods is an investor in the business and his photo appears at the top of its Facebook page, but his lawyers from the firm Cole, Scott & Kissane say he doesn’t own it.

In its defense, The Woods Jupiter last week fired back with numerous reasons why Immesberger caused his own demise and his parents are not entitled to damages:

He made the decision to drive “after becoming excessively intoxicated through the use of marijuana” and alcohol. This means he was “more than 50 percent at fault for his own injuries and death” and his estate can’t collect a jury award.

He “would not have been ejected from the 1999 Chevrolet Corvette if he had decided instead to wear his seat belt.”

He was speeding before the crash, reaching 70 mph on a road with a posted 55 mph limit.

He decided to work as bartender without telling his employer “about his inability to control himself from drinking alcohol to excess.”

He took alcoholic drinks without paying for them, so the restaurant never overserved him, or even served him at all that day.

In addition, The Woods Jupiter’s attorney, Barry Postman, argues key evidence is missing:

The Corvette’s airbags “failed to deploy” as a result of a defect in the car that is no fault of the restaurant.

The estate’s law firm knew about the airbag failure but didn’t do “anything to keep the car from being scrapped or destroyed after the crash occurred.”

The estate’s law firm never requested that restaurant surveillance video from Dec. 10 be preserved while there was still a chance to do so. That’s the same as “knowingly or negligently” causing it to be destroyed.

Those attacks prompted the parents’ lawyers, Craig Goldenfarb and Spencer Kuvin, to expand their accusations against The Woods Jupiter and Herman.