The $1.3 billion lawsuit filed by the voting machine company Dominion against Minnesota pillow mogul Mike Lindell Monday is not the first time he’s faced a potentially ruinous lawsuit.
By late 2003, after more than a decade owning his beloved Victoria bar called Schmitty’s Tavern, Lindell had $147,000 in debts, according to court records, and couldn’t keep up with the bar mortgage payments. Lindell sold the bar that year for $500,000, with part of the purchase financed through two promissory notes requiring the buyer to make monthly payments.
But then Lindell learned his corporation was being named as a co-defendant in a dram shop lawsuit — that’s when a bar owner is sued if a customer is over-served and then causes injury, in this case a snowmobile crash. Continue reading.