Barth v. Coleman

BACA, Justice. This lawsuit arises out of a barroom fistfight between two patrons of the Senor Buckets nightclub (Buckets). Plaintiff-appellee,
Sherri Barth (Barth) was injured at Buckets when another patron, Sheryl Martinez (Martinez), hit Barth in the nose. Alleging
negligence, Barth sued defendants-appellants, Buckets and James Coleman (Coleman), who was the manager of Buckets, for the
injuries and damages she suffered at the hands of Martinez. Following a bench trial, the district court granted Barth judgment
against Coleman and Buckets, jointly and severally, in the amount of $5000, plus costs. In addition, the district court granted
declaratory judgment in favor of the Evanston Insurance Company (Evanston), an intervening party in Barth's lawsuit against
Coleman and Buckets. The court declared that the insurance policy that Evanston issued to Buckets did not provide coverage
for Barth's damages. Coleman and Buckets appeal both judgments of the district court. On appeal, we address the following
two issues: (1) Whether the district court erred when it refused to allocate a percentage of fault to Martinez and Barth;
and (2) whether the district court erred by issuing a declaratory judgment holding that the insurance policy issued by Evanston
to Buckets did not cover the damages sustained by Barth. We review this case pursuant to SCRA 1986, 12-102(A)(1)(Repl. Pamp.
1992). We reverse both judgments of the district court and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion.