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SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — The CEO of a San Francisco bar claims in a complaint filed in San Francisco Superior Court that a 2023 viral video depicting a man spraying a homeless person with a hose on the sidewalk in front of his business caused him emotional distress and loss of profits to the tune of $2.5 million.
The case stems from a 2023 video capturing a man spraying a homeless individual with a hose on the sidewalk outside Barbarossa Lounge in Chinatown. Within days, the video garnered more than 16 million views on social media, with many incorrectly assuming the man to be someone affiliated with the lounge or an employee. Instead, the man in the video, Shannon Collier Gwin, was not associated with the business, but does own the property and leases it to Barbarossa Lounge.
The plaintiff, Arash Ghanadan, the operator of the lounge, accuses Gwin of triggering a wave of public backlash against himself and his business, including death threats, harassment and negative Yelp and Google reviews, blaming the lounge for the conduct in the video.
“The impact of the business was immediate, severe and measurable,” he said in the complaint, filed Friday.
Ghanadan additionally claims the incident hurt his and the lounge’s reputation, as well as deterred customers and further contributed to the business’s decreasing revenue. He adds that the “unrelenting public hostility, harassment and reputational damage” has caused the business to be commercially nonviable and that it is searching for an alternative location.
“Barbarossa Lounge cannot operate in a safe, peaceful and commercially viable manner — the very purpose for which it leases the property,” Ghanadan says.
Ghanadan argues Gwin broke the lease agreement by not providing a “quiet and peaceful enjoyment of the property” and trespassed on the lounge’s property by using the utility pipe and hose outside the business’s front entrance. He further claims Gwin should have predicted his conduct would be recorded and associated with Barbarossa Lounge, and Gwin should have corrected the public’s misidentification of Ghanadan and the lounge as responsible for the incident.
“Defendant had actual knowledge that members of the public were attributing his conduct to Barbarossa Lounge and its employees. As the individual responsible for the conduct, and as the landlord with direct control over the property, defendant was uniquely positioned to correct the false narrative,” Ghanadan says in the complaint.
He goes on: “Despite this knowledge, defendant failed and refused to take reasonable steps to clarify that plaintiffs were not involved, thereby allowing the harm to plaintiffs’ reputation and business to continue to intensify.”
Ghanadan says he and his employees have suffered severe emotional distress as a result of the misidentification and have received death threats and threats of physical violence, as well as threatening voicemails, phone calls and letters.
He is asking the court for at least $2.55 million in damages to cover direct losses, plus $2 million in additional damages and an order releasing Barbarossa Lounge from its lease.
In a statement to Courthouse News, Neusha Ghaedi of DeMartini Walker & Ghaedi, an attorney for Ghanadan, said the reputational harm of Gwin’s actions is “ongoing and continuous” and that Barbarossa Lounge continues to get negative online reviews that are directly tied to the 2023 video.
“This lawsuit seeks accountability for the substantial reputational and financial harm caused. Small businesses should not face destruction because of the actions of others, particularly when those actions create a false public association that permanently damages a business’s reputation and livelihood,” she said.
A representative for Gwin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gwin was arrested nine days after the incident and faced misdemeanor battery charges. That July, he agreed to do 35 hours of community service in exchange for dismissal of the criminal charges, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
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