Mall & Convenience Store Liability -- a $2.6 million settlement

If you have followed my blog, you know that Virginia is a conservative jurisdiction.  Thus, a recent $2.6 million settlement of a wrongful death case arising from of the death of a woman who was abducted by thugs from a mall, forced to drive to a convenience store to buy beer and take money from an ATM, and who later died, is notable. 

In this case, a 61-year old woman was visiting a local mall in Fairfax County, Virginia.  While walking alone through the parking garage, two teenagers abducted her, using a toy gun they had purchased in the mall.  The teens forced the woman back into her car and told her to drive to a local convenience store, where they forced her to buy beer for them and to withdraw money from an ATM. They then returned to the car with the woman, and crashed it, killing the woman and one of the teen robbers.

The woman's family sued the mall, a security firm hired to provide security at the mall, and the convenience store owner.  The family argued that each had a duty to provide security.  Generally speaking (especially in Virginia), a business owner does not owe a duty to a customer to protect them from third-party criminal acts.  But there are exceptions, including where the business owner has reason to know that criminal activity is likely, or is occurring, and does nothing about it.

In this case, the family was able to show that there had been hundreds of reported crimes at the mall before the incident, and ten robberies in the preceding two years.  There was also evidence that the mall's management ignored reports from its general manager of recurring problems with gang violence.  As to the convenience store, the evidence was that a store customer noticed the situation when the woman came in, and told the store manager to call the police.  The store manager refused to call police.  (The security company was able to get out of the case.  In addition, the family's automobile insurance coverage was triggered given the involvement of the family vehicle).

Although it remains difficult to hold businesses liable for a third-party criminals acts, it is possible when the evidence supports that the business turned a blind eye to a dangerous situation. 

Are Hospital Emergency Rooms A Part of the Hospital?

When you need to go to an emergency room, the last thing on your mind is likely to be whether the emergency room is part of the hospital.  It is common sense; of course, the emergency room in the local hospital is part of the hospital, right?  Actually, the current trend in medical care is for hospitals to "contract out" emergency room care to an "emergency medicine group" who, in turn, staffs the physicians (and sometimes the nurses) in the emergency room.

This has become a hot-button issue in litigation when things go wrong in the emergency room.  If a lawsuit becomes necessary, you would assume that the hospital is responsible for mistakes that take place in its emergency room.  But this is not necessarily the case, and more and more hospitals are escaping liability for mistakes that occur in their emergency rooms on the theory that they do not control the physicians working in the emergency room.

In some states, like Virginia, this legal distinction is a virtual bar to holding the hospital responsible for errors that occur in their emergency room.  In other states, like Maryland, you can try to prove that you were unaware that the hospital contracted out the emergency room care.  But if the hospital can show that it alerted you to this legal distinction beforehand, then it might be off the hook.  And how have some hospitals chosen to warn the patient?  By noting it in the fine print among the multitude of pages you sign when you enter the emergency room.  And think about it, why do most people enter an emergency room?  Because they are extremely ill.....do you think they really have time to read and digest that fine print?  And even if they did, if it is a true emergency, does the patient really have a choice where to go?

So what is the big deal?  You can still sue the emergency medicine group that is providing the contract services, right?  Well, yes.  But if that group (as is often the case) has only limited insurance coverage, you are unlikely to be fully compensated for your injuries.