Young Paralegal Shot in Restaurant Parking Lot in Riviera Beach, Florida
Business owners have a legal duty to provide safe premises for their patrons and guests. This includes a duty to protect them against any harm caused by the criminal acts of third parties when those criminal acts are foreseeable. Such criminal acts are foreseeable when their occurrence can reasonably be expected under the circumstances. Such was the case in the following Florida premises liability case.
One evening in December at about 9:00 p.m., a young paralegal and two of the partners at the law firm where she was employed had worked late at the office and were concluding a late meal at a restaurant in Riviera Beach, Florida, prior to departing for home. They had all come in separate cars. While the two attorneys had parked toward the front of the restaurant, the victim in this case had parked on the east side of the restaurant as there were no other spaces left. The restaurant faces south and is near I-95.
After consuming their meal, one of the attorneys and the paralegal walked out of the front of the restaurant and went to their cars while the other attorney was paying the bill.
As the paralegal pulled out and swung around the back of the restaurant to go toward the only available exit way, two young black males walked up to her vehicle. One stood in front of her vehicle to prevent her from pulling forward and the other walked up to her window. At that point, the individual that walked up to her window shot through her drive side window, striking her in the neck area as the bullet entered the left portion of her neck and lodged in her right shoulder area. The victim was able to crawl out of her car and get back to the front door of the restaurant as the suspects fled. At the front door of the restaurant, she collapsed into the arms of the second attorney with blood spurting out of her neck and onto the floor. The attorney provided a tourniquet pressure on her neck but the victim thought she was going to die as an artery had been hit and she was suffering substantial loss of blood. Fortunately, paramedics arrived in time and took her to St. Mary’s Hospital and she survived this horrible ordeal.
After recuperating, the victim in this Florida premises liability case contacted Attorney Richard D. Schuler who realized that the restaurant was responsible for this injury as a result of their failure to provide adequate security in the restaurant parking lot premises. The restaurant was aware, prior to the date of this incident, that there already had been three armed robberies over a three year period prior to this incident, along with other
multiple assorted crimes including purse snatching, car thefts, tearing up the inside of the restaurant, and other crimes too numerous to mention. In spite of this notice proving foreseeability of this crime, the restaurant failed to take any security measures whatsoever.
Mr. Schuler retained a security expert in this matter who testified that this was a preventable crime had the restaurant had an armed security guard such as an off-duty policeman on its premises between the hours of 7:30 p.m. and closing. In fact, after this incident, the restaurant did have such a security guard hired for its premises. The expert further testified that, based on crime statistics in this parking lot alone and in a small surrounding area, that this was no doubt a high crime area because of its placement near I-95 and its proximity to a small western portion of Riviera Beach, Florida considered a high crime area.
The victim in this case has suffered substantial economic and personal injury as a result of this incident. In medical care alone she has sustained expenses well in excess of $40,000.00. She had to have her neck operated on and stitched up on an emergency basis, and then had to have the bullet removed from her. She suffered permanent keloidal scarring of her neck, neurological damage to her neck, shoulder and right arm, permanent internal injuries to the esophageal area and significant psychological damage from having been shot at point blank range, at night, and being an apparent attempted murder victim. This did not include the pain and suffering she endured, her loss of ability to enjoy life, and mental anguish. Psychologically, in fact, she still suffers on a daily basis from the trauma of this incident and will continue to do so for the remainder of her life. She no longer feels safe even in the most innocuous situations.
Mr. Schuler was successful in settling this case for hundreds of thousands of dollars without the necessity of a trial.
