Michigan court: Up North bar can be sued for failing to report racist attack

LANSING — A Cheboygan County bar can be sued for not calling the police after one of its patrons called a Black man the ‘N’ word and punched him unconscious outside the bar's entrance, the Michigan Court of Appeals said in an opinion released Friday.

Edward James Tyson, who suffered brain damage as a result of the 2015 attack, sued David Clarence Dawkins, who was convicted of aggravated assault in connection with the incident, and Unthank LLC, doing businesses as a bar called B.S. & Co. in Wolverine, in the far north of Michigan's Lower Peninsula.

A Cheboygan County Circuit Court judge dismissed the bar from the lawsuit, saying it had no civil liability.

But now, a three-judge appeals court panel has ruled otherwise. ............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/04/23/bar-cheboygan-bs-co-wolverine-racist-michigan/7349361002/