No bull, she got $70G
Midtown bar pays for woman’s injury
That mechanical bull is a cash cow!
A Long Island woman has scored a $70,000 settlement for a knee injury she suffered while riding a mechanical bull at the Wild-West-themed bar in Midtown, Johnny Utah's, the Daily News has learned.
Jocelyn Burmeister, 34, said she was “visibly intoxicated” when employees let her straddle the bucking robot bronco on March 18 of last year.
She "was violently thrown off the bull before having a chance to mount the device,” according to the suit. She suffered a torn ACL at the W. 51st St. watering hole.
The settlement was made official in a notice filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday.
“That's a dangerous bull, no doubt about it,” Burmeister's attorney Alexander Karasik said.
“That place is terrible. They're very negligent in the way they conduct business. They just kind of throw people around while they're drunk.”
An attorney for the bar, Charles Gayner, said its insurance company ordered the settlement.
“Johnny Utah's continued to maintain a position of no liability,” he said.
“The problem you have in these litigations is costs are very high.”
It wasn't the first time Johnny Utah's has settled a case over a customer who messed with the mechanical bull and got the mechanical horns.
“I've sued that bull before,” Karasik noted.
In 2014 another patron represented by Karasik sued the bar, saying he was tossed from the bull on Super Bowl Sunday. He broke an ankle and tore a ligament. That case ended in a $100,000 settlement, the attorney said.
Bumeister did not return a phone call. Riders typically sign a waiver before getting on the bionic beast.
Gayner vowed the bull wasn't going anywhere.
“The bull is not retired. He's not making any bull babies, but he's not retired,” he said.