Casino guests injured during security scuffle, suit says

A couple of visitors to a Philadelphia casino claim that they were injured by security

personnel when they were dealing with an unruly patron, according to a personal  injury suit filed at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The plaintiffs, Cetera Thompson and Shenit Anderson of Wilmington, Del., seek more than $150,000 from the Harrah's Philadelphia Casino and Racetrack in Chester, Pa., on one cont of negligence and one count of assault and battery.

According to the complaint, on Sept. 9, 2012 the plaintiffs playing a table card game and a slot machine when a drunken patron started to make a scene. The suit says that approximately 15 security guards responded to the incident.

The suit says that the guards began attacking the drunken guest, the scuffle knocked Thompson and Anderson to the ground and causing severe but unspecified injuries. As a result, both plaintiffs have incurred continuing costs on medical expenses while suffering from persistent aches and pains and humiliation.

The plaintiffs say that Harrah's acted negligently by not properly training its security personnel. The casino failed to restrain its employees and keep them from using force that could potentially injure innocent bystanders, the complaint says.

They also seek punitive damages for the incident, saying the defendants' actions placed the plaintiffs in the reasonable fear of imminent bodily harm and resulted in them being unlawfully battered.

"The defendants' attempt to evict a third party from said premises through violence and physical force which caused the innocent and uninvolved plaintiffs to be seriously injured was outrageous, and was so far beyond the bounds of acceptable conduct in a civilized society," the complaint says.

The plaintiffs are represented by Alan Denenberg of Abramson & Denenberg.

The federal case ID number is 2:14-cv-05096-PD.