Owners’ personal assets at stake in fatal fall case

A judge has delivered another blow to the owners of a Boston tavern who recently were slapped with a nearly $7 million judgment after a college student fell to his death at the establishment.

The trustees of the bar don’t have enough insurance to cover the judgment, which is under appeal. So Boston attorney Jeffrey A. Newman has set his sights on the trustees’ personal assets.

And Superior Court Judge Elizabeth M. Fahey gave Newman the green light on April 22. Fahey agreed that Newman is entitled to the personal assets of the trustee owners of Our House East and also allowed discovery on those assets.

Fahey writes that her decision was influenced by clear evidence that the trustees are facing a judgment “largely in excess of [their] applicable insurance” and that the family of the deceased college student is “entitled to some security in recovering on the judgment.”

In arguing his case, Newman dusted off a rarely used law that says a trustee is personally liable “for obligations arising from ownership or control of the trust estate or for torts committed in the course of administration of the trust estate only if he was personally at fault.”

Newman declined to comment, and the trustees’ attorney, Kevin S. Taylor of Denver, Colo., could not be reached.

Boston tort lawyer Benjamin Hiller of Moquin & Daley says Fahey’s order sends a message to trustee property owners that “you can’t insulate yourself against liability merely by creating some edifice.”

Hiller adds: “People who own and manage properties, whether in their own names or in trusts, need to be aware that they’re not shielded from personal responsibility just because [they’re] trustees.”

The legal battle against Our House was waged after Northeastern University student Samuel “Jacob” Freeman was found dead at the foot of a steep stairway in the basement of the bar.

After his death, Freeman’s family accused the tavern of flouting the city building code, calling the stairs an accident waiting to happen.

A jury disagreed, but Newman and his co-counsel, Joseph S. Sano of Boston’s Prince, Lobel, Glovsky & Tye, convinced Fahey that the pub should be made to pay Freeman’s family under a Chapter 93A claim.