Thomas v. The Columbia Group, LLC
| Docket Number: | 2006-CA-01945-SCT | |
| Supreme Court: | Opinion Link Opinion Date: 11-29-2007 Opinion Author: Smith, C.J. Holding: Reversed and Remanded |
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| Additional Case Information: |
Topic: Wrongful death - Premises liability - Duty to invitee - Foreseeability Judge(s) Concurring: Waller and Diaz, P.JJ., Easley, Carlson, Dickinson, Randolph and Lamar, JJ. Concurs in Result Only: Graves, J. Procedural History: Summary Judgment Nature of the Case: CIVIL - WRONGFUL DEATH |
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| Trial Court: |
Date of Trial Judgment: 08-23-2006 Appealed from: YAZOO COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT Judge: Mike Smith Disposition: Granted Appellee's Motionj for Summary Judgment Case Number: 2004-CI 57 |
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| Party Name: | Attorney Name: | Brief(s) Available: | ||
| Appellant: | ROSIE THOMAS, INDIVIDUALLY AND ON
BEHALF OF THE WRONGFUL DEATH
BENEFICIARIES OF WILSON THOMAS, JR.,
DECEASED |
JAMES ASHLEY OGDEN |
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| Appellee: | THE COLUMBIA GROUP, LLC; THE COLUMBIA GROUP, LLC d/b/a SHADY LANE APARTMENTS | WALKER REECE GIBSON, MICHAEL WAYNE BAXTER | ||
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| Topic: | Wrongful death - Premises liability - Duty to invitee - Foreseeability |
| Summary of the Facts: | Rosie Thomas, individually and on behalf of the wrongful-death beneficiaries of Wilson Thomas, Jr., deceased, filed a complaint against The Columbia Group, LLC d/b/a Shady Lane Apartments, alleging negligent security, failure to warn, and failure to maintain the apartment complex in a reasonably safe condition. Shady Lane filed a motion for summary judgment which the court denied. Citing a newly published case, Shady Lane renewed its motion for summary judgment. The renewed motion was argued before a special judge who granted the motion. Thomas appeals. |
| Summary of Opinion Analysis: | The plaintiff argues that Thomas was an invitee at the time of the shooting. Thomas lived at Shady Lane Apartments with his girlfriend, Teresa Mitchell, for approximately two years. Thomas was not listed on the lease, but the manager knew or had reason to know that he was living there. At the very least, Thomas was an invited guest of tenant Teresa Mitchell and therefore was afforded the same protections extended to the tenant. A landowner owes an invitee the duty to keep the premises reasonably safe, and when not reasonably safe, to warn only where there is hidden danger or peril that is not in plain and open view. Shady Lane argues that Thomas was owed no duty because he was in a position to observe and fully appreciate the peril he was in. Thomas tried to break up a fight between Young and Young’s girlfriend and was shot at by Young. A full week later, Thomas had not gone after Young, but instead was sitting with two friends in the parking lot when he was approached by Young. It was an unprovoked attack. Therefore, it should be concluded that Shady Lane did in fact owe him a duty to exercise reasonable care to protect him from reasonably foreseeable injury. Shady Lane argues that the shooting was an intervening and superceding cause of Thomas’s death. For an intervening and superceding cause to extinguish liability of the original actor, the cause must be unforeseeable. In this case the cause was not unforeseeable. In order to establish legal causation, or foreseeability, in cases of assault by a third person, one must show actual or constructive knowledge of the assailant’s violent nature, or actual or constructive knowledge that an atmosphere of violence exists on the premises. This case presents both. The apartment manager at Shady Lane knew about the first shooting at least two days after it happened. There is even testimony that the apartment manager “knew something like this was going to happen,” and that she was going to do something about it. As to the existing atmosphere of violence, there is evidence in the record of several previous shootings on the premises and lots of fighting. There is at least enough evidence of foreseeability to establish a question of material fact for the jury to determine. The apartment manager stated that she was going to evict Young, and that she was going to get security and ban Young from the premises. This was not done. Two experts testified that Shady Lane’s failure to follow through with security proximately caused the second shooting of Wilson Thomas. This testimony from experts, coupled with the manager’s statement that she was going to ban and evict Young as well as improve security, is clearly an issue of material fact that should be determined by a jury. |
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