Brown v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance

Deen, Presiding Judge.

During the early evening hours of April 18, 1983, after he and his wife had spent most of the day drinking beer at Dennis’ Cafe, Gary Brown played on the Black Knight pinball machine. Venting his frustration over losing a ball, he cursed loudly, which offended Robert Dumas, another patron of the bar. Brown approached Dumas ostensibly to apologize, but an altercation resulted instead. Cross words were exchanged, and the conflict escalated when Dumas hit Brown over the head with a beer bottle. Eventually both men drew handguns (although there was a dispute over who first…