Universal Orlando has settled a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the father of a 27-year-old man who died by suicide in a fall from the resort’s Aventura Hotel in 2019.
Matthew Bahna died Aug. 12, 2019, after scaling an 8-foot glass wall at the Bar 17 Bistro on the 17th floor of Universal’s Aventura Hotel and falling to his death at about 12:30 a.m., according to a police report.
His father, Alfred Bahna, sued several companies involved with the hotel, including Universal Orlando and hotel owner Loews Corp., in Orange Circuit Court in September 2020. He sought damages in excess of $30,000.
He alleged the open-air rooftop Bar 17 Bistro lacked sufficient barriers and the bar’s employees served his son too many drinks over a short timespan, causing Matthew Bahna’s judgment to be “substantially and significantly impaired” leading up to his death.
The companies denied the allegations in court.
The case was dismissed Sept. 6 after all parties reached a confidential agreement during an Aug. 3 mediation. Court records do not show the terms of the settlement.
Michael Bailey, the lawyer representing Alfred Bahna, declined to discuss the lawsuit’s outcome Monday.
Neither the lawyer representing Universal and Loews Hotels, Maria Dalmanieras, nor representatives for the companies responded to a request for comment Monday.
In the lawsuit, Alfred Bahna claimed employees served his 5-foot-3 son six drinks over 90 minutes and did not check to make sure Matthew Bahna left the bar after it closed at midnight. He said Universal should have trained employees to stop serving clients after a certain number of drinks and to secure the rooftop bar to keep guests safe, records show.
Universal and the hotel companies should have taken further precautions to make sure guests could not climb over the bar’s glass walls, such as by making the walls taller or installing “anti-climb roller bars” on them, the lawsuit said.
Records show the companies denied these allegations and responsibility for Matthew Bahna’s death in court. They said bar staff saw him behaving normally prior to his death, and the bar was constructed to code with the city of Orlando’s approval.
After their son’s death, Alfred Bahna and his wife, Kerry Bahna, visited the bar and were surprised by the lack of safeguards there, Bahna told the Orlando Sentinel in late 2019. They said they wanted Universal to install more safety features, like “a net, more security [or] spikes on top of the wall” to help prevent similar tragedies in the future.
Universal spokespeople did not respond when asked Monday if the hotel had installed additional safety features at the bar since August 2019.
Matthew Bahna, called “Waffles” for his love of the food, was a gifted musician and taught himself to play guitar, Alfred Bahna said in 2019.
His parents started a nonprofit, The Waffles Foundation, in 2020 in his memory. The organization donates musical instruments to kids in need.
“[Matthew] would want us to go on; and the music to never stop,” Alfred Bahna wrote on the foundation’s website.
Help is available
If you or a loved one is in crisis, the National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline offers 24/7 confidential assistance. Please reach out by calling or texting 988 or chatting with a trained crisis worker via the Lifeline’s website.
krice@orlandosentinel.com and @katievrice on Twitter
