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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Set Ablaze at Hilton Head Bar, Woman Says

(CN) - A Beaufort, South Carolina woman claims in court that she was engulfed in flames after a Hilton Head bartender doused her arm with a flammable liquid just as a patron sitting next to her lit a cigarette.

In a complaint filed in Beaufort County, Katherine Mansfield says she was a patron at the popular Black Marlin Bayside Grill on May 15, 2015 when the incident occurred.

Mansfield doesn't say what the liquid was or why she was doused, but she says as soon as the other patron struck a match, her left arm was on fire and she sustained serious burns.

The complaint says Mansfield "was set on fire because of a hazardous and dangerous condition that was created by the Defendants, and for which there was either no, or inadequate, warning to prevent her] from being set on fire."

The plaintiff says SERG Restaurant Group, LLC, the parent company, and The Black Marlin are responsible for her "physical injuries ... pain and suffering, mental anguish, and emotional distress."

Mansfield seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages on a claim of negligence.

Neither Olin McDougall, II in Beaufort, SC, who represents Mansfield, nor SERG Restaurant Group, which owns the Black Marlin, returned a call from Courthouse News seeking comment.

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