Marc Trachtman Law prevails on summary judgment for Superior Grocers arising out of violent assault on security guard.
Facts: This action arises out of a violent assault and battery on a security guard (the Plaintiff) whose employer was hired by Superior Grocers and stationed at Superior Grocers which is in a strip mall. Two homeless men or vagrants were acting in a threatening, intimidating, and physical aggressive way toward patrons and employees. Plaintiff called the police and asked the two men to leave. Profanities were exchanged, Plaintiff employed pepper spray, which was not successful, and the two men beat Plaintiff badly so that he suffered a traumatic brain injury, head trauma, facial lacerations, facial and orbital fractures, eye injuries, loss of vision, injuries to his upper and lower extremities, other injuries, allegedly leaving him permanently disabled and unable to work. Plaintiff claimed there were insufficient security guards given alleged history of past similar crimes, inadequate administration of security force, failure to arm guards with defensive weapons, inadequate monitoring of parking lot, ineffective and inadequate Post-Orders, absence of video surveillance, and more grounds. Marc Trachtman Law filed a motion for summary judgment based on the Privette doctrine and primary assumption of risk doctrine. The parties mediated while the summary judgment was pending. However, the Plaintiff’s Counsel was certain it would defeat the MSJ and refused to reduce its settlement demand under multiple millions.
Result: Summary judgment granted for Marc Trachtman Law (via John W. Roddy, Esq.) in 2020. The Court, in an exhaustive 17-page ruling, held as a matter of law that Superior Grocers did not owe a legal duty, that the risk of injury was a foreseeable occupational hazard, and thus assumption of risk applied, and that the peculiar risk doctrine adopted by the Privette and its progeny, insulated Superior Grocers from any liability of its third-party security vendor where Superior Grocers did not otherwise actively or negligently and actively contribute to the incident.
