The 43-year-old painter, whose brain was damaged so badly that he lost the ability to speak, was awarded $ 58 million in damages.
The man stopped talking after he was beaten by a bar guard, who broke his skull in a fight. The US Supreme Court found the security company guilty and ordered to pay compensation to the victim. At a press conference held after the announcement of the court decision, Antonio Lopez Tea was supported by relatives.
Having won this process, the man set a kind of record. The amount of compensation that the security company must pay him became the largest ever awarded to one person in California.
As Chai removed the baseball cap that covered his gruesome injuries, a wave of amazed sighs erupted across the press conference room.
“His skull is like a pie cut from a quarter,” said lawyer Federico Seir.
Chai was attacked at a bar in Mid Wilshire when he tried to stop a bartender and a security guard from attacking two of his relatives.
The lawyers said that an untrained guard without the necessary license beat Chay with a truncheon, kicked him eight times in the head, and hit his head four times on the sidewalk.
Promotional video:
“It was a really horrific and brutal beating of a man who had nothing to do with it,” said Sayre, who represented Chai with Fernando Chavez, son of famed civil rights leader Cesar Chavez.
According to the lawyer, security guard Emerson Quintanilla and the bartender who provoked the attack disappeared without a trace. The lawyer also said that the incident took place on April 20, 2010, when Chai, his brother and two nephews, who also worked as painters, went to a bar after work.
One of the relatives got into an argument with the bartender. Quintanilla, who worked for a security company, began beating the man's relatives. Chai tried to intervene by asking the guard to stop. At this point, according to Seira, the guard struck Tea, sending him to a deep knockout.
“When he got to the hospital, part of his skull was missing. Doctors managed to save his life, but his brain is badly damaged. He will never be able to speak again and will need 24-hour care for the rest of his life.”
