Verdicts & Settlements

Woodlands Ordered to Pay Man $300,000

Wilkes-Barre - Jurors early Thursday evening awarded John Shovlin $300,000 for an attack by several bouncers from the Woodlands Inn & Resort.

The jury deliberated for more than two hours before ruling, 12 to 0, the Woodlands was 75 percent negligent for the attack and injuries. The jury also said Shovlin was 25 percent responsible for the attack and injuries.

The awarded totaled $400,000, but Shovlin's 25 percent negligence reduced the total damages.

Shovlin filed suit in 1996, claiming he was attacked, beaten and severely injured by a number of bouncers who used excessive force at the Plains Township resort in May 1995.

"I'm stunned," said attorney Norman Namey, who represented the Woodlands. He said he will be filing additional motions in the case, then swiftly left the courtroom Thursday.

Shovlin hopes the verdict does more than just make the Woodlands pay money for what its employees did.

"I hope the Woodlands changes their policy on use of force," said Shovlin, who urged the resort's owners to train their bouncers like police officers.

The verdict came a day after Woodlands' employees testified Shovlin became agitated at the club, even though no patrons or bouncers did anything to harass or provoke him.

Shovlin snapped away, they said, and demanded a bouncer remove another patron from the club.

In his closing argument Thursday, Namey said a bouncer acted appropriately by removing Shovlin from the club after Shovlin became threatening and slapped a bouncer's hands.

Namey said the bouncer perceived Shovlin as a threat and removed him from the club in a professional manner - not rough - for other patron's safety.

"This isn't a road house," Namey said. "This is an upscale club."

But Shovlin's attorney, Julia K. Munley, said the bouncers violently removed him after a "regular" customer harassed Shovlin and his group.

Shovlin appropriately asked a bouncer to remove a patron, Stewart Boice. But the bouncer instead grabbed Shovlin in a "choke hold" and dragged him outside where several other bouncers punched and kicked him.

It was that beating, Munley said, that led to serious, permanent neck injuries and other bruises and contusions for her client.

By David Weiss, Times Leader Writer