A judge has dismissed the claims of negligence against police by a former NHL and WLA player who was assaulted at the Cheers nightclub in Delta five years ago.
In December 2006, Garrett Burnett, a former member of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, New Westminster Salmonbellies and Burnaby Jr. Lakers, was struck over the head by someone wielding a bar stool at the club.
Burnett, who played 39 games during the 2003/2004 NHL season, suffered a moderately severe traumatic brain injury. Burnett was also a hard-nosed defender for the Salmonbellies after playing his junior lacrosse as a goalie for the Burnaby Jr. Lakers in the mid-'90s.
He sued the owners of the club as well as the city of Delta and Delta police, but settled with the owners just before the trial began.
At trial, he made a number of allegations, including that the police had failed to identify the club as a nuisance to the public and that they were negligent in their investigation of the assault.
But in a ruling released Nov. 2, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Austin Cullen found that the connection between the alleged negligence and the harm that Burnett suffered was not strong enough to find the defendants liable.
The judge concluded that the evidence fell short of establishing that the police had a duty of care in relation to the assault.
"I am thus unable to conclude that the plaintiff has met the burden of establishing liability against the Delta defendants in this case and accordingly I dismiss the plaintiff's action with costs to the defendants," said the judge.
