Fan attack on Chiefs tailgater spawns second settlement

A 270-pound, face-painted Raiders fan’s knack for beating up Chiefs’ tailgaters has prompted a second settlement with the Kansas City team’s parent company.

Resolution came this month with the second person to claim injuries from a November 2005 game-day brawl in the parking lot of Arrowhead Stadium, triggering the dismissal of lawsuit No. 2 to challenge security levels at the stadium.

The suit settled shortly before it was supposed to go to trial July 12 before Judge Michael Manners in Independence.

Kansas City Chiefs Football Club Inc. in April reached a confidential settlement with

Terral Cline, who blamed the Texas-based company for a broken nose and head and neck injuries. He’d claimed the November 2005 bashing by an Oakland Raiders fan resulted in surgery and $27,000 in medical expenses.

Cline had alleged three counts of negligence, claiming that the Chiefs knew of various other assaults in its parking lot, yet took no action. The case settled shortly before it was set to go to trial this spring.

Charles Young, of Leawood, Kan., made similar allegations against the Chiefs in a nearly identical lawsuit. Young, who was with Cline at the time of the Chiefs-Raiders showdown, claimed he suffered shoulder and face injuries after being hit in the head and falling to the ground. He got medical treatment, but claims that some of the injuries are permanent. He sought compensatory and punitive damages.

Dorothy Young, like Cline’s wife, also had sought damages for loss of support and companionship of her husband.

The Chiefs in both cases denied all allegations, contending in legal documents that the plaintiffs’ injuries were at least partly their fault because they argued with the man and other Raiders fans.

The amount of the July settlement wasn’t available in court records, and attorneys for the plaintiffs and the Chiefs didn’t return phone calls.

Reached by phone, Chiefs spokesman Pete Moris declined to comment on the lawsuits’ allegations. The Raiders fan couldn’t be reached for comment.

The Jackson County prosecutor’s office had no record of assault charges connected to the incident.

The plaintiffs accused club employees of not ensuring the Raiders fan left Arrowhead property, leaving him to harm others in the parking lot.

The then-29-year-old man, weighing 270 pounds and standing more than 6 feet tall, was asked by police to stop drinking and calm down or risk being thrown out of the game, according to a police incident card.

When police saw the man, who was decked out in black and silver Raiders attire, grab a margarita from a friend and show it off to police from across the stadium, officers handcuffed him and began to escort him off the premises. They removed the handcuffs at the parking lot, where one of his friends pledged to take care of him, according to the transcript of a police officer’s deposition.

Both lawsuits filed in Jackson County Circuit Court in 2009 cite 29 other incidents of violence at Arrowhead in the five years leading up to the rumble, referencing police reports.

“There had been a sufficient history of assault and assaultive conduct in Chief’s [sic] parking lot to put the Defendant on notice of the likelihood of injuries if adequate security wasn’t provided to protect patrons who were in the parking lot,” plaintiffs’ attorney John Turner, of Turner & Sweeny in Kansas City, wrote in the second complaint.

The Chiefs contended the prior incidents weren’t sufficient to serve as a warning to the team of issues in the parking lot, given that many of them were domestic violence incidents and didn’t occur in the parking lot itself.

The Chiefs claimed they weren’t responsible for the alleged criminal acts of the fan or other third parties, but the plaintiffs in the two lawsuits emphasized the Raiders fan had been ejected from the game that day.

John Schultz, of Franke Schultz & Mullen in Kansas City, represents the Chiefs.

The cases are Charles Young et al. v. Kansas City Chiefs Football Club Inc., 0916-CV22423 and Terral Cline et al. v. Kansas City Chiefs Football Club Inc., 0916-CV22424.