WESTBROOK – The family of a 24-year-old Westbrook man who died after he was hit in a face in an incident in Portland in 2010 has filed a wrongful death suit, naming the attacker and the bar that the attacker was in before the attack as defendants.

The suit, which is seeking unspecified damages, by the estate of Eric Benson was filed in Cumberland County Superior Court on April 17. The suit, which also includes Benson’s mother, Wendy Benson of Westbrook, names William Googins of Gray and 42 Wharf Enterprises, which operates The Oasis bar in Portland as defendants.

The suit alleges that employees at The Oasis negligently served liquor to an already intoxicated and underage Googins, who was 20 at the time of the assault. The complaint also claims that Googins’ assault on Benson while he was still drunk directly caused Benson’s death.

William Robitzek, the attorney for the Benson estate, did not return calls seeking comment by the American Journal’s deadline. John Whitman, the attorney for 42 Wharf Enterprises, also did not return calls seeking comment.

Googins is an inmate at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham. He was sentenced to 10 years, with all but 2 1?2 years suspended after pleading guilty to aggravated assault as part of a plea bargain in June 2011. A charge of manslaughter was dropped as a condition of the plea bargain.

Benson died May 23, 2010, after being punched once in a confrontation in Portland’s Monument Square at 1:30 a.m. following a night out in the Old Port.

Portland police said that Benson, a 2005 graduate of Westbrook High School, had been walking with a female friend when they were confronted by Googins and two other men near 4 Monument Square, where Benson was assaulted.

The woman accompanying Benson screamed for help and a witness called 911, according to police at the time. Benson died surrounded by family in Maine Medical Center in Portland. The Maine Medical Examiner’s Office said the death was a homicide caused by “blunt force trauma to the head.”

Portland police arrested Googins after he turned himself in. Googins was initially charged with aggravated assault.

Eric Benson