December 26, 2006
Does the Marriott Marquis Care About Drunk Guests?
This is definitely a case of when best laid New Year's plans go awry. An upstate man is now allowed to sue the Marriott Marquis in Times Square for $750,000. According to the Daily News, Jeffrey Dagen and friends got two rooms at the Marriott to ring in 2005 in the heart of Times Square. However, the Marriott decided to kick out Dagen's party when a woman was found "facedown" in a hallway right before midnight.
The swanky hotel was unable to find him and his friends suitable rooms elsewhere. So Dagen took off for his home near Albany - but he only made it as far as the Taconic Parkway, where he drove off the roadway into a tree, shattering his left leg and suffering chest injuries.Dagen's lawyer says, "We don't even know if that young lady was drunk or if it was food poisoning. The hotel just assumed everyone was overindulging and sent them on their way." Which is terrible - we wonder if the hotel has changed its policies since then. Maybe the Marriott (and other hotels) need a drying out room.U.S. Northern District Judge Lawrence Kahn of Albany ruled last week the Marriott had a responsibility to protect Dagen from himself by not ejecting someone who had been drinking. "It was entirely foreseeable that [Dagen's] next stop after being kicked out of the hotel wasn't going to be on the set with Dick Clark filming 'New Year's Rockin' Eve,'" Kahn wrote in his decision.
Dagen's lawyer says his client is "taking it easy" this New Year's.
Photograph of the Marriott Marquis from Wired New York
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the hotel is responsible for protecting the dumbass from himself?! that's BS.
"Maybe the Marriott (and other hotels) need a drying out room."
*OR* Maybe adults should behave like adults and not drink themselves into stupors.
Just a thought...
Since when is it the hotel's fault when a drunk guy decides to drive drunk?
I love lawyers and their stupid clients.
when will people be responsible for themsleves.
Wonder if he was charged with DWI after he crashed?
This merely means he can sue, not that he won. Even if he does win (never know with a jury), it would have be appealed. In any case, the Marriott has liability insurance that will likely settle out of court.
There is a very well established host rule in New York, even if you are a private home owner having a part and let your friends drive home drunk, you are potentially liable!
S.D., that's true, but why should the idiot be rewarded for his actions?
New York has a safe harbor law, meaning hotels are expected to provide safe harbor for their clients. Presumably the litigation in this case rests on whether or not safe harbor extends to non-guests consuming hotel products.
Why couldn't the Marriot security just give this guy and his friends a stern warning? They were kicked out just because their bimbo friend passed out in the hall? Nothing was indicaated that they were assaulting or disturbing the other guests, so why eject them? Yeah, they behaved like morons, but I'm sure that drunken guests are not an unusual occurrence for Times Square hotels on New Year's Eve.
mike, your absolutely right but insurance companies will go for whatever they feel is cheaper. In this case, sadly, that boob will get rewarded for his own poor judgment (i.e. Driving off). If this does goes to court and by some hance he wins, they'll appeal.
Here is more detailed info.
While I am not a friend of lawyers, I am curious as to what several of you think Mr Dagen should have done, as you label him a fool etc? Gotten another hotel room- the article clearly states there were none to be had- even through P2P calls by the Marriot. Should he have slept on the street risking arrest or ending up in the hospital due to exposure? What?
And dont give me that holier than thou BS about not getting drunk. It was NYEve and it seems he purposely did the right thing by getting a hotel room so that he could have a few and sleep it off- avoiding drunk driving etc. Marriot was stupid and ,IMHO, completely liable. What if he had killed someone while driving home? They essentially forced him to drive drunk.
Whatever Max. Plenty of us get wasted on New Year's and don't get thrown out of places or behind the wheel of a car. There is probably much more to this story. I bet they were warned and they continued to act like assholes. ninety five percent of people would politely apolgize to management and would be allowed to stay. This guy is likely inthe five percent that starts screaming about his rights as a hotel guest.
Max, sorry, but no one forced him to drive off. Among his many options was leaving the car in the City and taking the train to Albany. I mean he suddenly had $4000 extra so I think he could afford parking...
I'll make an assumption here: He's an adult and despite the alcohol, he knew he had choices.
Would you blame hotel bartenders too? Do they "force" people to drive drunk when they eject someone from the bar?
At what point does Jeffrey Dagen take responsibility for his actions? He wasn't ejected from that hotel room for no reason: as the person responsible for those rooms, he was responsible for his guests. They got out of hand and he was ejected.
This guy acted like a responsible adult by getting a room in anticipation of the fact that he'd be drinking later in the evening. If the hotel boots him, they're liable.
"This guy acted like a responsible adult by getting a room in anticipation of the fact that he'd be drinking later in the evening."??
Shame he wasn't responsible all thru the night.
When the police had to be summoned because:
Tom, Do you think the hotel should have just said: "Oh Yeah, they'll calm down!" and leave them be?Wouldn't the hotel liable for any problems (i.e. POLICE) that may have be caused by him and his guests, ruining some other peoples party?
Would you rather his party continued to get out of control and impact other people on that floor?
How many times should the Police and an Ambulance be called before Jeffrey Dagen is held responsible for the rooms he rented and the people he invited?
Correct me if I'm wrong: You and Max seem to be under the assumption that the hotel is responsible Only for Jeffrey Dagen alone and nothing more. His Guests got out of hand in the rooms he was responsible for. He was responsible, he and his guests were ejected (bet the people sharing that floor celebrated when that happened) as a result.
Again, from the law.com Article:
Mind you, that's after consulting with the Police.I suppose it's preferable for the Hotel to be Liable for that woman fleeing the room than for this guy to choose to be an adult and take a train to Albany.
No one has answered Max's question. The guy lived in Albany. What, exactly, should he have done? Would one of you let him crash at your place? Y'all know the last train to Albany leaves at 11:45, right?
Maybe he should have taken a cab up there. It only would have cost like 500 bucks.
Well, Here are some right off the top of my head:
- As you said, take a cab to Albany
- Take a Cab to a Queens Hotel/Motel (i.e. near the Airport)
- Take a cab to Newark Airport and get a hotel/motel there.
- Go to an all night Diner and get sober.
- Stay with some friend (Two rooms and none of his guests lived in NYC or NJ?)
It's been a while, but I've gotten drunk and both left my car in Manhattan while taking the subway home or stayed at a friends place. IMO, he had choices and managed to pick the wrong one.I still think the hotel is covered by the fact that only had the choice of they either throwing him out or kept him and risk more mayhem in the hotel.
It's been a while, but I've gotten drunk and both left my car in Manhattan while taking the subway home or stayed at a friends place. IMO, he had choices and managed to pick the wrong one.
Dude... you have no concept of reality. You want a guy who is basically a tourist find either a Diner in Mid-town without getting lost, take a cab to an outer borough or to, god forbid, Newark, and wander around trying to find a hotel that may or may not have a room available because it's New Year's.
I guess you'd wander around, say, Baltimore if your hotel kicked you out.
And your Diner idea is fantastic. I mean, shit... drive exhausted but Heaven forbid you drive drunk, because falling asleep behind the wheel is so much safer.
Is the guy an idiot? Sure. He probably should have taken the Thruway and stopped at a rest stop and went to sleep... but unfortunately in this blessed state of ours, you can get a DWI if your car is off and you're in it sleeping one off. To say the hotel had zero responsibility here is idiotic. And, like a previous poster said, if you kick a drunk guy out of your home and he kills someone in a car, you're just as liable as he is. The hotel doesn't get a free pass.
"Dude... you have no concept of reality."!?
(sigh)
Are you kidding? By acting responsibly and NOT driving Drunk, I have no concept of reality?
Oh C'mon!
"I guess you'd wander around, say, Baltimore if your hotel kicked you out."
I guess you'd drive drunk and blame it on others.
Tourist? You have a great opinion of people from Albany. Might surprise you, but they generally aren't Redneck's there.
"The hotel doesn't get a free pass."?
Sooooo, even though the Police were called,
Even though they may have no other recourse than eject him from the Hotel,
Even though him and his "Friends" may have been ruining New Years Eve for everyone else,
You think the hotel should have let him stay. (Nice that you don't address any of that!)
According to you, your boy Jeff gets a "free pass", but the hotel is liable for his choices. Nice!
But why bother pointing any of that out as I no concept of reality.
What a simplistic world you live in, I'm sure you'll ignore all these points again. Guess we'll see which way the Civil Trial goes.
"You want a guy who is basically a tourist find either a Diner in Mid-town without getting lost, take a cab to an outer borough or to, god forbid, Newark, and wander around trying to find a hotel that may or may not have a room available because it's New Year's."
Even if he was a "tourist", there are plenty of restaurants in Times Square open all night on NYE and you can just tell the cab driver to take you to an airport hotel or any other hotel. How hard is that?
How about the hotel minding their own business and letting him keep the room he paid for. He knew the consequences and knew he would get drunk, so he got himself a place to go where he would be safe. Why should the marritott be his mommy?
Yeah, Chris, it's not like it actually spilled out to the hallway...