A football manager has won £112,000 after injuring his knee when he was thrown onto the street from a nightclub ‘like something out of a Tom and Jerry cartoon’.
Lee Jarvis, 40, was injured in an assault by a doorman at McQueens nightclub in trendy Shoreditch, east London in November 2012, with the injury massively disrupting his career.
He was minding his own business having a drink with a friend at the club in Tabernacle Street, east London, when a bouncer approached him and he was kicked out for no reason, a- he declared.
He ended up being thrown out into the street through a fire escape in what Judge Nigel Gerald called “unjustifiable assault”.
CCTV footage of the incident showed him ‘thrown out the nightclub’s fire door almost like a clip from a Tom and Jerry cartoon’, the judge added – before ordering the security company employing the bouncer – M Zurich Europe Ltd – to pay £112,000 in damages.
Lee Jarvis, 40, was injured in an assault by a doorman at McQueens Nightclub in 2012
Mr Jarvis was minding his own business having a drink with a friend at the club in Tabernacle Street, east London
Mr Jarvis, who leads the AJ Soccer children’s football training team in Harrow, north London, had to give up ‘practical training’ due to his injuries and was left with ‘very symptoms significant, intrusive and disabling,” said his lawyer, Adam Samuel.
In addition to his physical symptoms, he suffered “humiliation, distress, indignity and injury to his feelings”, the Central London County Court was told.
And to make matters worse, he feared he would completely lose his livelihood due to being subsequently wrongfully sued for assault based on the gate staff’s version of events.
But after months of anxious waiting, Mr Jarvis was acquitted of assault by a magistrate at Highbury Magistrates’ Court in April 2016, retaining his good name.
Mr Jarvis had punched one of the bouncers after he got up off the ground, but the magistrate admitted he was acting in self-defence when he did so.
‘Had he been convicted it would have been the absolute end of his career,’ Judge Gerald said, adding: ‘It caused him unnecessary stress as he was literally fighting for a living and a job for which he had a great passion.”
The assault by nightclub security staff caused a meniscus tear in Mr Jarvis’ left knee and prevented him from doing “hands-on coaching” as well as accelerating degenerative changes in his knee.
Mr Jarvis, who leads the AJ Soccer children’s football training team in Harrow, north London, was injured
As a result, he had to hire another colleague to handle on-court coaching, reducing his income and robbing him of his coaching enjoyment.
The court heard that Mr Jarvis runs a thriving football coaching school which continues to grow.
But his lawyer said that because of his injury ‘at a relatively young age, Mr Jarvis will not be able to play a full active role in his chosen career’, adding that his ordeal has also caused him thoughts persistent intruders.
“He had significant adjustment disorder with anxiety, which had been acute for six months, and temporarily exacerbated – with the stress of criminal proceedings – giving rise to a total of nine months of clinically significant symptoms in total,” the report said. ‘attorney.
Mr Jarvis sued M Zurich Europe Ltd – who were responsible for security at the gate – over the assault which blighted his coaching career.
The security firm was found liable for her injuries in a previous civil trial in April 2019, but until Judge Gerald’s ruling they have always disputed the amount of compensation sought.
During the trial of the case in Central London County Court, his solicitor explained how trouble erupted when Mr Jarvis was having a drink with a friend at the club.
“While the applicant was present on the premises having a drink with a friend, he was accosted by one of the doormen and ejected from the premises.
“While complying with the doorman’s instruction to walk out, he was pushed towards a fire door and forcibly thrown down a set of steps, suffering a torn meniscus in his left knee.
“Immediately after the assault, and while being threatened by the doormen, the plaintiff threw several punches – which the criminal trial judge ruled in self-defence.”
“Due to the totally unwarranted reporting by Defendants’ employees of Plaintiff as a ‘guilty party’, Plaintiff was arrested and charged with assault.”
Mr Jarvis had ‘obeyed the doormen’s instructions to leave the premises’ and was assaulted when he was thrown down the stairs.
At the criminal trial, no evidence was given by the offending doorman as to why Mr Jarvis had been expelled, his lawyer said, adding: ‘It was accepted that the claimant had been ‘pushed out of the house’. emergency exit from behind and grabbed the doorman. as he was thrown through the door in an attempt to break his fall”.
Judge Gerald – presiding over the damages trial – said he had seen CCTV footage of the ejection incident which showed Mr Jarvis being kicked out ‘like something out of a cartoon’.
He said he would try the case on the grounds that Mr Jarvis had acted in self-defence when he attacked the doormen, adding: ‘I will proceed on the basis that the defendant and not Mr Jarvis was at fault, and I will continue on the grounds that the defendants acted improperly in assaulting him.”
And he concluded that Mr Jarvis had been the subject of a “wrongful prosecution” and that he had been “proved” by Mr Zurich Europe.
“Mr. Jarvis feels deeply aggrieved by the defendants,” the judge said.
‘It seems very obvious that the reason he feels so deeply wronged is not just because the career he loved in life was taken away from him by unjustifiable aggression – but also because he then saw his entire career challenged by a wrongful criminal prosecution and then by a liability suit on a matter that had no proper basis.
