$6.8 million awarded to a student’s fatal fall down stairs in a premise liability case

A judge has awarded the family of Jacob Freeman $6.8 million after Freeman, a Northeastern University student, died about four years ago after falling down a flight of stairs at Our House East, a bar in Boston.

In the ruling, the judge notes that although Freeman's BAC was 0.208 when he fell down the stairs, the stairs were poorly lit, lacked a safe landing, had inadequate railings, and was dangerous in other ways making it difficult to see that there was a staircase there.

The company that owns the bar was ordered to pay damages of $6.8 million on the basis that the bar ignored safety hazards that the stairs presented, even after incidents of two people falling there previously; and the bar had been violating the city's permitting process which includes never getting a permit required to run the bar.

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