Shugar v. Guill

Facts

On October 19, 1978 at approximately 9:25 AM, Plaintiff entered the defendant’s restaurant in Tarboro, called “Cotton’s Grill.” He grabbed himself a cup of coffee, and without paying, went to go sit with a group of regular customers, including the defendant owner. As plaintiff sat down, he told the defendant that the cup of coffee was “on the house,” and to charge the cup against a sum of $6.25 the defendant may have owed plaintiff for some construction materials. Defendant called plaintiff cheap and told plaintiff to leave the restaurant, The altercation escalated and defendant grabbed plaintiff into a “bear hug.” Plaintiff was hit in the face twice, and the defendant’s glasses were broken. After a bystander intervened, plaintiff put his arms down as though to end the scuffle, and defendant hit plaintiff square in the nose, resulting in a broken nose and bleeding. The broken nose cost $234 to fix. Plaintiff then sued for assault and battery. Plaintiff was awarded $2,000 in compensatory damages and $2,500 in punitive damages at trial. Defendant appealed; punitive damages were vacated; plaintiff appealed to the North Carolina Supreme Court on the issue of punitive damages.