Published August 12, 2025 · Trials in the News

When someone is killed in a violent attack, families usually focus first, and rightly, on the people who committed it. But sometimes the attack happened because a business failed to do what it should have done to keep people safe. Late last month, a Franklin County jury held a Columbus bar's owner responsible for most of the harm in exactly that kind of case.

What the jury decided

As reported by WOSU Public Media on July 25, 2025, a Franklin County jury awarded $27 million to the family of Gregory Coleman Jr., a 37-year-old father who died on September 18, 2022. The verdict came on a Thursday afternoon after trial.

According to WOSU and ABC6, Mr. Coleman was assaulted on Labor Day 2022 outside the now-closed Short North Julep bar on North High Street in Columbus. He remained in a coma until his death. The two men who attacked him, Dwayne Cummings and Chrystian Foster, were working security in the Short North. Both were later convicted of murder.

The family sued in 2023. The defendants were the bar's ownership group, I Love High LLC, and the two men. ABC6 reported that the lawsuit claimed the guards were "poorly trained, unsupervised and hired without background checks."

According to the family's attorney, as reported by WOSU, the jury placed 80 percent of the fault on the bar's owner and 10 percent on each of the two men. WOSU's report did not include a response from the bar owner's lawyer.

"Losing my son, it changed my whole life," Mr. Coleman's father told ABC6.

Why the bar can be responsible for what its security staff did

A business that hires security takes on responsibility for how that security is selected, trained, and supervised. In negligent security and negligent hiring cases, the questions usually include:

  • Did the business check the backgrounds of the people it put in charge of security?
  • Did it train them on when force is and is not appropriate?
  • Did anyone supervise them, or were they left to act on their own?
  • Did the business know, or should it have known, about warning signs?

These claims focus on the business's own choices. That is why a jury can find a company mostly at fault even though other people committed the violence. Our page on premises and negligent security wrongful death explains how these cases are built.

Why the 80 percent finding matters

In Ohio, when more than one party caused a death, the jury assigns each a percentage of fault. R.C. 2307.23(A). Those percentages affect what each defendant must pay.

Under R.C. 2307.22, a defendant found more than 50 percent at fault is jointly and severally liable for all of the family's economic damages, such as lost financial support and funeral costs. R.C. 2307.22(A)(1). That means the family can collect the full economic portion from that defendant, rather than chasing each defendant for a small share. The statute also has a special rule for defendants against whom an intentional tort is proven. R.C. 2307.22(A)(3).

Noneconomic damages, such as grief, mental anguish, and the loss of companionship and guidance, are handled differently: each defendant pays only its own percentage. R.C. 2307.22(C).

This is why the allocation of fault is so important. Individuals who commit violent crimes often have no insurance and little money. A business, by contrast, may carry liability insurance. A finding that places most of the fault on the business can be the difference between a judgment the family can actually collect and one it cannot. We explained the other side of this rule, when most of the fault lands on someone who cannot pay, in our post about a Cleveland jury's verdict in a child's death.

The criminal and civil cases worked together

In this case, the criminal prosecution came first and ended in murder convictions. ABC6 reported that prosecutors relied in part on a bystander's video. Evidence developed in a criminal case can be important in the family's civil case, though the civil case has its own rules and a lower burden of proof. Our guide chapter on criminal and civil cases explains how families can follow both.

What families can take from this verdict

  • Look beyond the person who struck the blow. Ask who employed them, who trained them, and who had the power to prevent what happened.
  • Act before evidence disappears. Surveillance video, staffing schedules, incident reports, and hiring files can be lost if no one asks for them to be preserved.
  • Know the deadline. A wrongful death lawsuit in Ohio generally must be filed within two years after the death. R.C. 2125.02(F)(1). A criminal case does not stop that clock.
  • Understand what can be recovered. Ohio law allows damages for lost support, lost services, loss of society, loss of prospective inheritance, and mental anguish. R.C. 2125.02(D). Our chapter on damages explains each.

A jury verdict is not always the end of a case. Post-trial motions and appeals are common after large verdicts, and the amount a family ultimately receives can depend on insurance and on how the fault rules apply.

This article is general information about Ohio law, not legal advice about your situation. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadlines and rules change; talk to a lawyer about your family's situation.