ATLANTA — A Union City Dunkin’ employee cannot claim more than workers’ comp after police say she was stabbed on the job by an Atlanta-area rapper, the Georgia Court of Appeals has ruled.
In December 2020, Mekiah Bryant was working as a cashier at Dunkin’ Donuts in Union City.
Police said Marquavis Goolsby, who goes by the stage name of Dae Dae, came up to the drive-thru window and became visibly upset when he could not get what he wanted. He then left the store.
“About ten minutes later, Goolsby and the female companion returned, entered the store, and approached Bryant at the counter. While his companion remained silent, Goolsby complained that Bryant had been rude during the drive-through interaction. Goolsby asked to speak to the manager, but Bryant informed him that the manager was occupied, and he would have to wait. Goolsby continued complaining, and, according to Bryant, Goolsby ‘put his fingers in [her] face.’ Bryant told him not to do that, went around the counter to approach him, and admonished, ‘I don’t play like that.’ At that point, the confrontation became physical, and Goolsby pulled out a kitchen knife and stabbed Bryant in the arm,” court documents show.
Police said when Goolsby left the store, he left some evidence behind.
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Investigators said he managed to leave one of his white sneakers behind in the midst of all of the commotion.
In November 2022, Bryant filed a lawsuit against the company that owns the Dunkin’ location, Peachstate Concessionaires, Inc., for “liability (including negligent security), negligent infliction of emotional distress, and attorney fees.”
“The trial court granted Peachstate’s motion as to the negligent infliction of emotional distress and attorney fee claims, but denied it as to the premises liability claims, ruling that it “c[ould] not find, as a matter of law, that [Bryant’s] injuries on the job necessarily arose out of her employment, as the risks of such injury were not reasonably incident to her employment,” court documents show.
For that reason, Peachstate ended up appealing the ruling.
“In this case, the trial court erroneously concluded that Bryant’s injuries did not arise out of her employment because ‘there is a significant difference between the resolution of basic customer service dispute[s] and being subjected to criminal assault by a disgruntled customer.’ That distinction, however, is one of degree, not kind, and we have previously held that injuries of the kind at issue in the present matter fall within the exclusive remedy provision of the (Worker’s Compensation) Act,” the judge said in his opinion. “Goolsby’s act of stabbing Bryant arose out of his displeasure with her job performance. There is no evidence that the attack was personal; indeed, the two had never met and did not otherwise know each other. In the absence of Bryant’s interaction with Goolsby in her capacity as a cashier at Dunkin’ Donuts, she would not have been assaulted. In other words, Bryant was exposed to the “causative danger [of being assaulted by a disgruntled customer] by virtue of the character and nature of her employment and the conditions under which she worked.”
Goolsby was arrested in June 2021 in Suwanee and was charged with aggravated assault.
In a video posted to his Instagram account at the time, Goolsby said, “[They] slander my name...#framed.”
Goolsby came onto the hip-hop scene in 2015 with his hit “What You Mean.”
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