The Oregonian | By Aimee Green | January 11, 2019
A Portland bartender who was hit with a $115,000 lawsuit earlier this week for drinking on the job is firing back.
Gunnar Hokan Jorstad has hired an attorney and is preparing to ask a Multnomah County Circuit judge to throw out a lawsuit filed by his former employer, the Barrel Room. The suit faults Jorstad for an Oregon Liquor Control Commission decision to suspend the bar’s liquor license for 21 days.
The commission decided to sanction the bar after Jorstad, 25, admitted he was intoxicated last year while serving customers — a big violation of commission rules. The commission also sanctioned Jorstad by suspending his server’s license for 18 days after Jorstad decided not to contest the finding and penalty.
On Friday, Jorstad’s lawyer said the Barrel Room’s attempt to collect from Jostad for its estimated losses from the no-booze ban is “frivolous” and “absurd.”
“While employed at Barrel Room, Mr. Jorstad was repeatedly encouraged by management to ‘get the party started’ and to lure women in off the street with free liquor,” Jorstad’s attorney, Michael Fuller, said in a statement. “As reported by The Oregonian, Mr. Jorstad chose to take responsibility for his part in Barrel Room’s January 2018 Oregon Liquor Control Commission violation. Barrel Room, on the other hand, refuses to take responsibility for its part in the violation.” Fuller said the Barrel Room needs to accept its own failure.
“Their violation is ‘failure to supervise,’” he said. “They’re not being sanctioned for what (Mr. Jorstad) did. They’re trying to pass the buck onto him.”
Fuller also wrote the bar’s attorney a letter Thursday, notifying him that Jorstad is filing a complaint with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, claiming that the Barrel Room committed “wage theft” by failing to pay Jorstad his last paycheck of $315 after he was fired.
Douglas Raab, the attorney representing the Barrel Room, declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
Few details are available about the night that got Jorstad and the Barrel Room in hot water. This week’s lawsuit states only that Jorstad admitted to Portland police that he drank on the job and that he was relieved of his work duties that night.
Fuller said he also seeks to be reimbursed for Jorstad’s costs in taking action against his former employer.
Lawsuit Quickly Ends: The Barrel Room Drops $115k Suit Against Bartender Who Drank on the Job
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2019/01/lawyer_barrel_room_trying_to_p.html
