Quadriplegic’s Suit In Legal Limbo

“I can’t say if the [trial] date will be 2010 or 2011,” Dennis Schulz’s lawyer Patrick Phelan told the Canadian Press.

Schulz filed suit in November 2007 against the people involved in the fight, promoter Panhandle Productions, arena operator Northlands, beverage server Dominion SportService and even the local police department after he was left quadriplegic from the fracas at the show.

Panhandle, Northlands and local police have denied that they failed to provide adequate security, and Dominion has denied that it overserved alcohol at the show.

Schulz was in the wrong place at the wrong time when an argument broke out between two men in the seats behind him at Rexall Place.

According to the lawsuit, when the men got into the fight, one was pushed backward over a seat and landed on Schulz, breaking his neck.

“Mr. Schulz … has been advised by his doctors that he will not work at his job as a journeyman machinist again,” Phelan wrote in a letter to the court. “He will not walk again. Currently he has no movement in his hands.”

Schulz is among three plaintiffs in the case including his wife and the province of Alberta, which has also sued for medical costs.