Tiger Woods and his girlfriend, Erica Herman, have been named in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of an employee of his Jupiter, Fla., restaurant.
The suit, reported on Monday, alleges Nicholas Immesberger, a bartender at The Woods, drank alcohol at the restaurant's bar for nearly three hours after his shift Dec. 10, 2018.
Immesberger, 24, died after his 1999 Chevrolet Corvette left the roadway soon after leaving the establishment. He had an estimated blood-alcohol concentration of 0.28 — more than three times the legal limit, per the suit.
The family seeks “in excess of” $15,000.
Immesberger's family claims “Woods, Herman and other employees were aware that Immesberger had a drinking problem but regularly overserved him during and after his work shifts.”
Under Florida alcohol laws, Woods could be held liable as an owner of the establishment even if he wasn’t physically there if a death occurs due to over-serving an individual with a known history of alcohol abuse.
The lawsuit is unclear whether the Masters champion was at the restaurant before Immesberger's death. Herman is the manager of the restaurant.
“It’s very sad,” Woods said Tuesday at the PGA Championship in New York, where he will tee off at 8:24 a.m. Thursday at Bethpage Black.
Woods said it was a “terrible night, a terrible ending.”
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