TD Garden Defeats Lawsuit Over Open Beer Cups, Patron’s Fall

TD Garden, home of the NHL’s Boston Bruins, is off the hook for a lawsuit brought by a patron allegedly injured by slipping on a spilled beer sold in a cup without a lid, with a ruling by the First Circuit.

The court applied Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court precedent concerning the state’s “mode of operation” approach to premises liability. Plaintiffs in such cases must demonstrate they were forced to traverse a mode of operation in which the hazardous condition causing their injury was foreseeable.

Under that precedent, plaintiffs can’t get to a jury “‘simply by showing that an establishment sells ...