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A civil lawsuit brought against Mark Sanchez may be heading to federal court after his former employer, Fox Corporation, filed a removal request last week and argued the lawsuit’s addition of an Indiana-based business last month was “fraudulently” made to keep the case in Marion Superior Court.
Huse Culinary, Inc., the owner and operator of St. Elmo Steakhouse, where Sanchez had been dining before his Oct. 4 bloody altercation with 69-year-old delivery driver Perry Tole, was added as a defendant in Tole’s lawsuit for allegedly serving alcohol to a visibly intoxicated Sanchez, before his alleged assault on Tole.
Sanchez was employed at the time as a Fox Sports television analyst and had been in Indianapolis for the weekend’s game between the Colts and the Las Vegas Raiders. During his altercation with Tole, Sanchez was stabbed in the chest and spent a week in a hospital.
Fox, which has been sued for negligent hiring, is requesting the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana take jurisdiction over the matter after asserting Huse Culinary was “fraudulently joined” to the lawsuit to keep the case in state.
“By amending his complaint to remove facts describing Sanchez’s allegedly intentional and criminal actions and by adding an Indiana citizen as a defendant, Tole seeks to block Fox’s ability to remove this case to federal court,” Fox stated in its removal filing.
Matthew Golitko, an attorney for Tole, disagrees with Fox’s proposed removal and its characterization of the amended complaint, saying Fox is “speculating facts not in evidence” and making a jurisdictional argument based on Huse Culinary’s conduct, rather than its own.
“We plan to hold all parties accountable for their actions whether this case proceeds in state or federal court,” Golitko wrote in an email to The Indiana Lawyer on Monday.
Until Huse Culinary was added as a defendant in late November, the only Indiana “citizen” named in the lawsuit was Tole (Sanchez is a citizen of California, and Fox is listed as a citizen of Delaware and New York).
The Lawyer also reached out to Huse Culinary for comment.
Tole is suing Huse Culinary under the state’s Dram Shop Act, which permits injured persons to sue alcohol vendors—like bars and restaurants—if they knowingly served a visibly intoxicated person, and that the intoxication directly resulted in their damages or injuries.
But Fox argues that Huse Culinary’s involvement cannot be a “proximate cause” of Sanchez’s alleged criminal conduct because it was intentional and violent in nature—which are limits outside the scope of the Act.
In its removal request, Fox pointed to Fast Eddie’s v. Hall, a 1997 case where a tavern was sued for serving alcohol to a patron who later murdered a woman.
The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the tavern, stating that “unlike automobile accidents which occur as the result of alcoholic beverage consumption, assault and murder are intentional acts of volition which are the result of an assailant’s deliberate design,” not their intoxication.
According to the original complaint, Tole was approached by Sanchez after he had parked at a loading dock area outside the Westin Hotel.
Tole’s injuries resulted in nearly $60,000 in hospital costs, according to evidence submitted along with the removal request. During their interaction, Sanchez had entered Tole’s work truck without permission, blocking Tole and preventing him from contacting his manager.
Sanchez allegedly shoved Tole, which began an intense physical altercation leaving Tole suffering significant injuries to his head, jaw and neck, and leaving Sanchez with stab wounds.
Aside from the civil case, Sanchez was criminally charged with felony battery resulting in serious bodily injury, unlawful entry to a motor vehicle and public intoxication.
A jury trial for that case has been set for March 12.
Sanchez had a 10-year NFL career before retiring in 2019. He spent four seasons with the New York Jets and also played for Philadelphia, Dallas and Washington. He appeared on ABC and ESPN before joining Fox Sports as a game analyst in 2021.
Fox Sports confirmed in November that Sanchez was no longer employed by the network.
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