A restaurant manager wins $3 million from the man who put a cigar out on his face.
By Phil Davis

"Moustapha wants to see you," a waiter told East City Grill manager Andrew Lampasone on a seemingly normal April night last year. "But watch out, he wants to put his cigar out in your eye.

A joke, Lampasone thought. He knew well-heeled customer Moustapha Fostock was upset at being asked to put out his smelly stogie a few minutes earlier, but he didn't expect violence.

So, he was stunned when Fostock cursed him and jammed a burning cigar into his left cheek, raising a silver dollar-size blister.

"I was in a state of disbelief," says Lampasone, who yanked his head back before the burning embers could leave a permanent scar. "I remember seeing the ashes falling from my face, seeing a hot ash falling to the floor. I couldn't believe this guy was doing this to me."

His first thought was to "drop kick this guy out the door." , But he restrained himself. He called police, but decided not to file criminal charges. Instead, he decided to make Fostock pay - following the advice of friends and lawyers who told him the only way to punish a rich man is to hit him in the wallet

"I never in a million years thought they'd give us 3 million," Lampasone says. "When they came out and said 3 million, I almost fell out of my chair." -Andrew Lampasone

A Broward civil jury took it further than Lampasone ever imagined. On March 21 - almost a year after the assault at the upscale Fort Lauderdale Beach restaurant - they awarded Lampasone $8,000 for pain and suffering induced by the cigar attack. The kicker was the next line of the judgment: a whopping $3 million in punitive damages.

"We had to send a message out," juror Gerald Jones said last week. "You don't treat anyone like that. That's just dead wrong.

"It's a very strong message," he adds. "Someone comes from overseas and does that to an individual? It doesn't matter what your background is, that wasn't right. You're going to burn this guy just because he says you can't smoke in his restaurant?"

Jones says he and his fellow jurors were disturbed by pictures of Lampasone blistered cheek. But what really got on their nerves was Fostock's apparently cavalier attitude toward the justice system.

First off, Fostock didn't show up in court to defend himself, he's reportedly out of the country. He didn't even send a lawyer. Then, the jury learned that only three weeks after he was served a subpoena warning him of Lampasone's lawsuit, Fostock transferred the title of his $1.1 million Coral Ridge Country Club home to his wife, Ann.

To the jury, that looked like an attempt to protect his assets.

"It's just like a slap in the United States' face, the way I see it," Jones says. "It's like saying, 'I can come over here and do anything I want.' You can't just do that."

So they decided to sock it to Fostock in the form of a $3 million punitive judgment.

Lampasone's attorney, Dan Cytryn, says the award was appropriate. Citing the O.J. Simpson civil case, Cytryn says the only way to punish a millionaire is to take millions.

"I think if this guy was worth $5,000, the jury would have come back with $4,000," Cytryn says. "The very purpose [of punitive damages] is to punish these individuals and send an example to the community that this type of behavior will not be tolerated."

It's unclear if Fostock heard that message, or even if he knows that when he returns to America there is a $3,008,000 judgment filed against him in Broward Circuit Court.

"Honestly, I don't know when they will be back," said a man who identified himself as the Fostocks' housekeeper last week.

It's also unclear when or even if Lampasone will collect his millions. There's a strong possibility Fostock will appeal and even if he doesn't, civil damages can be hard to collect.

Obviously, Lampasone, who now sells wine for a living, would like to collect. He's pleased the jury delivered his message loud and clear to the "arrogant" man who burned his face.

"I never in a million years thought they'd give us 3 million," Lampasone says. "When they came out and said 3 million, I almost fell out of my chair."

So does he feel rich? "Oh yeah!"

Dan Cytryn, Esquire
Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer
Law Offices Cytryn and Santana, P.A.
1401 N. University Drive
Suite 401
Coral Springs, Florida 33071
(Tel) 954-255-7000

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