I feel so awful for 12stringsam that I was up last night thinking about this. What a nightmare. I would not want to be the one to have to break this news to an acquaintance who had lent me his guitar. Actually, this happened to me many years ago, not with a Martin, but with a Guild, and it was my guitar that was damaged. It was semi-negligence on the part of the borrower, but one of those things that could have happened to anybody. I wasn't too pleased when she told me but fortunately it was reparable and she did arrange for the repair, so that was resolved amicably. In this case, with the Martin guitar being totalled, I guess the issue is whether or not the guy had a strong sentimental attachment to it and if so that would be very unfortunate.   However I must disagree with the poster who implied that 12stringsam was negligent for leaving the instrument on stage while he went out for a smoke on his break. I would always leave my instrument on stage when I take a break at a gig, unless there was another act during the interim, and I've seen many performers to the same. In no way was 12stringsam negligent. The pub owner was and especially the jerks who couldn't restrain themselves and started fighting - but it probably will be difficult to get any money out of them. If it is possible to sue them and make things difficult I think that is the way to go, if for no other reason than to make them think twice about fighting in a public place. If a speaker fell on a guitar and crushed it - what if it had fallen on somebody's head?