Mass. bar challenges $6.7M award in student's fall

BOSTON (AP) -- Owners of a popular Boston bar are challenging a judge's decision to award nearly $7 million to the family of a Northeastern University student who died after falling down some stairs.

Jacob Freeman died in 2007 after he went to Our House East to meet some friends for drinks. He was found at the bottom of a basement stairwell with a severe head injury and died days later.

Freeman's family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit, claiming the stairs were a safety hazard.

The jury found the bar was not liable for Freeman's death, but a judge later awarded Freeman's family damages. The judge said the bar never obtained a required permit for the stairs and ignored long-standing building code violations.

The state Supreme Judicial Court is to hear arguments Jan. 7.