A local judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a man who was attacked with a baseball bat by his ex-employers.

Changqian Zou filed the civil lawsuit last May seeking damages to exceed $25,000 related to the April 2016 incident. Zou is a former employee of Bubba Changs; a Chinese-American buffet in Genoa Township that closed after a fight in the parking lot between several ex-employees and the restaurant’s owners.

After being fired, Zou and another ex-employee, Shiguang Zheng, showed up at the restaurant to collect some personal belongings and back wages. An argument with Bubba Changs owners, Jeremy and Johnnie Lee Hamilton, and dishwasher Timothy Borg, turned into a physical fight that led to Zou being beat up with a baseball bat. Johnnie Hamilton’s wife, Angela, reportedly hid the bat after the attack.

In the aftermath, Zou sued Hamilton Cedar Creek Inc., which listed the Hamilton brothers, Angela Hamilton, and Borg as the defendants, for injuries he sustained from the fight and the resulting medical bills, lost work time and income, and pain and suffering. The defendants filed counterclaims against Zou, alleging they have suffered pain, humiliation, lost earning capacity, lost business, and loss of society and companionship because of the incident.

However on October 19th of this year, Livingston County Circuit Court Judge Michael P. Hatty dismissed the lawsuit because Defendant Shiguang Zheng and Plaintiff Timothy Borg had not participated in court-ordered mediation. Court records indicate Zheng, a former Ypsilanti resident, now resides in Kentucky, while Borg is currently serving a three to ten year prison sentence for charges related to the assault at Bubba Changs.

In Judge Hatty’s dismissal, he noted that the court retains jurisdiction to enforce a settlement agreement between the parties. (DK)