William Ilg sues Hustler Club for getting him drunk, huge tab

William Ilg has just tried – and failed – to sue a bar that he claims got him too drunk to say “no” and run up a $28,000 credit card bill. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Ordinarily, reports of a man is suing a bar for getting him drunk and causing him to spend too much would be dismissed as making excuses to placate an enraged spouse. However, one William Ilg is suing the Hustler Club in New York, claiming they got him wasted and thus tricked him into a $28,000 tab.

Excuses, excuses, William Ilg

Nobody really means to spend that much in a bar, but it happens. If one is having a good time and it’s only every now and again…why not? Some people do get carried away and often one has to come up with someone to blame. Rarely does the bar staff get blamed and normally if one would even try to, they’d get laughed at.

Tell that to William Ilg. William Ilg, according to the Daily Mail, tried slapping the Hustler Club, a “gentleman’s club” in New York City, with a lawsuit, claiming that during a night he spent at the bar, the staff plied him with far too much alcohol, resulting in him getting catastrophically drunk and blacking out. In the morning he discovered a credit card bill for $28,109.60.

Second lawsuit against club for same thing

William Ilg claims that since he was inebriated, he wasn’t able to conduct financial transactions and as a result, they should have given him a refund. By not doing so, the club was engaging in a “fraud and wrongful conversion.”

Ilg’s suit was filed last year. The judge didn’t buy it and just recently, tossed the case. Ilg also tried to sue the club for an improper liquor license, but that suit didn’t cut the mustard in court either.

This was in fact the second instance of the Hustler Club being sued for the same thing. Gerard Wall, of Delaware, tried filing a similar suit last year after visiting the club, having too much to drink and winding up with a $21,000 bill for the night’s proceedings. That suit wasn’t successful either. Perhaps they’ll just have to get on the installment plan.

Others have tried

Aside from William Ilg and Gerard Wall, a number of people have sued bars for intoxicating them over the years. Another instance of a “man sues bar for getting him drunk” story occurred earlier this year in Pennsylvania.

According to the Beaver Countian, a county news site for Beaver County, Penn., one Donald Leroy Brown filed suit against three bars, after drinking at those establishments in March of this year. He fell asleep on his arm after returning home, causing swelling and pain. He went to the emergency room, where it was found the circulation had been cut off for too long and his right arm had to be amputated below the elbow.

Even United Airlines felt the pinch in 2008, according to The Consumerist. A man was served a glass of wine every 20 minutes every 20 minutes during a flight between Osaka, Japan, and San Francisco, Calif., until he became roaring drunk and punched his wife in the face six times. They both sued the airline, claiming their over service caused the intoxication and pugilism.