Bar owner charged after customer dies
Man left outside in minus 3C night - Toronto Star - April 17, 2004
A Scarborough bar owner faces a criminal charge after a man who was found on the ground outside his establishment on Easter weekend died.
George Nikolovski, 68, who owns Papa George Restaurant & Bar, was arrested and led away by police Thursday night from the small bar he has run for the past 25 years.
He is charged with criminal negligence causing death and was in custody yesterday awaiting a bail hearing.
According to police, Dale Francis O'Halloran, 52, was drinking at the restaurant on Eglinton Ave. E. last Sunday. He became intoxicated and, while inside the bar, he "apparently fell, which is one of the contributing factors to his death," said Detective Sergeant Rick Searl, of 41 Division.
Police said in a news release O'Halloran was "removed" from the bar, and noted the temperatures overnight fell to minus 3C.
A passerby found O'Halloran at 7 a.m. Monday "lying on the grass beside the building," Searl said. He was taken to Sunnybrook hospital, but medical staff were unable to revive him. An autopsy showed he died of hypothermia, a skull fracture and "other influences," Searl said.
O'Halloran's sister, Vera Clements, said yesterday: "We were told there was no foul play and now they tell us there was. And that's all we know. So we're just kind of waiting till we get the whole story of what took place.
"Under the circumstances I really don't want to get into it. We just buried him yesterday."
O'Halloran moved to Toronto from Prince Edward Island when he was about 16, said his sister, who last saw her brother in the autumn.
"His family was very important to him," she said. He married a Toronto woman; they had three children plus a stepson from her previous marriage. He had nine grandchildren.
At Papa George yesterday, one patron, who declined to give his name, said he spoke to Nikolovski before he was charged. "He told me he's been here for 25 years and never had a problem. I know he is very upset."
Bar regulars described Papa George as a quiet, small neighbourhood bar frequented by many people from the Maritimes. O'Halloran lived nearby and was a regular, they said.
Located in a strip plaza on Eglinton Ave. E. near Midland Ave., Papa George has two pool tables, dartboards and a jukebox. Snapshots line the walls. Behind the bar are pictures of the owner's family.
The province's Alcohol and Gaming Commission says the bar has only one infraction on the books: In 2000 its licence was suspended for seven days for serving intoxicated patrons.
Bar and restaurant owners and managers contacted by the Star were uneasy about the case.
"I think this story sets a very bad precedent," said Andrew Thomas, manager of the Fox and Fiddle pub at John St. and Adelaide St. W.
"You can't follow everyone home and make sure they get to bed okay. Nor do we have the means to call everyone we throw out, either."
A manager's responsibility for patrons is "a gray area," said Luigi Rende, general manager of The Marlowe on College St.
"If you do your part and make sure they don't get into a car and drive home, or call them a cab, that should be where the bar owner's liability ends."
Dianne Martin, associate professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, responded in an e-mail that in some cases bar owners have been successfully sued by people who became intoxicated and then got into car accidents.
"Those civil cases establish that there is a duty on bar owners and servers of alcohol toward their customers. Negligence, whether civil or criminal, arises when someone comes to harm that another had a duty to prevent — or at least not cause."
Martin said the degree of "recklessness" required for a criminal negligence conviction is "quite significant." A conviction can result in a life sentence.
In 1996, the owner and an employee of the Back Street Bar in downtown Toronto were charged with criminal negligence causing death after an intoxicated woman fell on some concrete stairs and died. The Ontario Court of Justice dismissed the charges, in 1999, saying the accused did not show "a wanton or reckless disregard for the life and safety of the deceased."
With files from Dale Anne Freed and Andrea Houston
