The Oregonian | By Aimee Green | January 20, 2019
Less than two weeks after a Portland bar filed a $115,000 lawsuit against one of its former bartenders – for prompting state regulators to temporarily suspend its liquor license – the bar has agreed to drop its lawsuit.
An attorney for the bartender, Gunnar Hokan Jorstad, announced Saturday that The Barrel Room has agreed to drop its lawsuit against the 25-year-old. Jorstad was caught drinking on the job last January in violation of state rules, spurring the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to announce a 21-day suspension of the bar’s liquor license starting Sunday.
A written statement released by Jorstad’s attorney, Michael Fuller, said his client has apologized.
“Our client has learned a valuable lesson through this unfortunate experience and is sorry for the impact it has had on other employees not being able to work during the suspension,” Fuller wrote.
Ten days ago, after Jorstad hired Fuller, the lawyer had described the lawsuit as “frivolous” and “absurd.”
Fuller said that Jorstad had already taken responsibility for being intoxicated on the job when he accepted a sanction suspending his server’s license for 18 days. But Fuller contended The Barrel Room was not taking responsibility for its part in the violation: “failure to supervise.”
Fuller also said that his client was filing a complaint with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, claiming the bar failed to give Jorstad his last paycheck – for $315 – after he was fired.
It was unclear Sunday whether the settlement included any money exchanging hands.
But according to an email Friday from The Barrel Room’s attorney to Jorstad’s, the business was “willing to agree to a dismissal of the case and a mutual walk away as to all claims” if Jorstad’s side made a statement to news media “admitting his fault and commenting on the unfairness of the OLCC rule as to businesses under these specific set of circumstances.”
On Saturday, Fuller’s written statement criticized the commission.
“From our perspective, the penalty that the Oregon Liquor Control Commission imposes on a business for the behavior of an employee is unfair, especially under the circumstances of this case where the business immediately had its employee leave upon learning of the employee’s conduct,” Fuller wrote.
Douglas Raab, an attorney for The Barrel Room, said Sunday he reviewed the statement and said he had nothing further to add.
Fuller represented Jorstad pro bono.
