TACTICAL SECURITY GROUP, LLC v. CYNTHIA WELCH

Court of Appeals of Georgia·Decided December 20, 2021·No. A21A1342·Published

Opinion

FIRST DIVISION

BARNES, P. J.,

GOBEIL and MARKLE, JJ.

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December 14, 2021

In the Court of Appeals of Georgia A21A1341. PAPPAS RESTAURANT, INC. v. WELCH et al. A21A1342. TACTICAL SECURITY GROUP, LLC v. WELCH et al.

MARKLE, Judge.

After Cynthia Welch was injured and her husband Anthony was killed in a shooting in the parking lot of Pappadeaux Restaurant, she sued Pappas Restaurant Group, which owned the property, and Tactical Security Group, LLC, which provided the on-site security guards.1 The trial court denied Pappas’s and Tactical’s motions for summary judgment, and certified its order for immediate review. We granted the interlocutory applications, and these appeals followed. After a thorough review of the record, and with the benefit of oral argument, we reverse.

1 Welch filed suit individually and as administratrix of her husband’s estate.

To prevail at summary judgment under OCGA § 9-11-56, the moving party must demonstrate that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the undisputed facts, viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, warrant judgment as a matter of law. On appeal from the grant of summary judgment this Court conducts a de novo review of the evidence to determine whether there is a genuine issue of material fact and whether the undisputed facts, viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, warrant judgment as a matter of law.

(Citation omitted.) Little-Thomas v. Select Specialty Hosp.-Augusta, 333 Ga. App. 362, 363 (773 SE2d 480) (2015).

So viewed, the record shows that Pappas owns Pappadeaux and another restaurant on the same property on Windy Hill Road, with parking lots for each and a lower lot for overflow parking. The parking lots are well-lit, and there are surveillance cameras throughout the area. To patrol the grounds, Pappas hired Tactical to provide unarmed, uniformed security guards to deter crime such as automobile break-ins and loitering, and to assist with traffic issues. On Friday nights, two guards were assigned to patrol the lots, and a third guard was stationed in the fire lane in front of Pappadeaux to monitor traffic. The guards patrolled the lots on foot or in marked security cars with flashing lights.

On Friday, October 7, 2016, Welch and her husband went to dinner at Pappadeaux and parked in the lower lot. Because the restaurants were extremely crowded that night, with customers waiting over an hour to be seated, there were many people in the parking lot area. Although there were three guards on site most of that evening, one guard left at 10 p.m. After that, one of Tactical’s guards patrolled the parking lot while the second guard remained stationed in the fire lane. Shortly after 10 p.m., as the Welches walked through the parking lot back to their car, a man stepped in front of them, demanded their belongings, and then shot both of them. Anthony was killed. The shooter and his accomplices were later captured and convicted of murder.

Security footage from the surveillance cameras showed the assailants driving into the lot shortly after 10 p.m. and lingering around their car before the attack. The footage also confirms that, 60 seconds before the shooting, a guard in a marked security vehicle with the lights flashing patrolled the area where the assailants were lingering and where the attack would occur moments later.

Cynthia Welch sued Pappas and Tactical for premises liability, negligence, and wrongful death.2 Pappas and Tactical moved for summary judgment, which the trial court denied. We granted the applications for interlocutory review, and these appeals followed.

Case No. A21A1341

1. In this appeal, Pappas contends that the trial court erred in denying its summary judgment motion because Welch failed to show that there were substantially similar crimes that made the instant attack foreseeable. It further asserts that the trial court erred in relying on expert testimony because the expert stated outright that he had no opinion on foreseeability. We agree that Pappas was entitled to summary judgment.

Under Georgia law, to state a claim for negligence,

the following elements are essential: (1) A legal duty to conform to a standard of conduct raised by the law for the protection of others against unreasonable risk of harm; (2) a breach of this standard; (3) a legally attributable causal connection between the conduct and the resulting

2 Welch’s claims of ordinary negligence are subsumed by her premises liability claim. See Tomsic v. Marriott Intl., 321 Ga. App. 374, 385 (4) (739 SE2d 521) (2013).

injury; and, (4) some loss or damage flowing to the plaintiff’s legally protected interest as a result of the alleged breach of the legal duty.

(Citation omitted.) Brown v. All-Tech Investment Group, 265 Ga. App. 889, 893 (1) (595 SE2d 517) (2003). In Georgia, it is well settled that a proprietor owes its invitees a duty “to exercise ordinary care in keeping the premises and approaches safe.”3 OCGA § 51-3-1. But, “the landowner is not an insurer of an invitee’s safety. An intervening criminal act by a third party generally insulates a landowner from liability unless such criminal act was reasonably foreseeable.” (Citation omitted.) Rautenberg v. Pope, 351 Ga. App. 503, 505 (1) (831 SE2d 209) (2019).

Our case law has set forth the way in which a plaintiff can show that the criminal activity was foreseeable. First, a plaintiff may point to previous crimes that are substantially similar to the one at issue. As our Supreme Court explained,

if the proprietor has reason to anticipate a criminal act, he or she then has a duty to exercise ordinary care to guard against injury from dangerous characters. Accordingly, the incident causing the injury must be substantially similar in type to the previous criminal activities

3 Because the duty to keep the premises safe is non-delegable, Pappas would be vicariously liable for Tactical’s alleged negligent acts if the criminal activity was foreseeable. See Camelot Club Condo. Assn. v. Afari-Opoku, 340 Ga. App. 618, 627 (2) (b) (798 SE2d 241) (2017); see also OCGA § 51-2-5.

occurring on or near the premises so that a reasonable person would take ordinary precautions to protect his or her customers . . . against the risk posed by that type of activity.

(Citations and punctuation omitted.) Sturbridge Partners v. Walker, 267 Ga. 785, 786 (482 SE2d 339) (1997); see also River Place at Port Royal Condo. Assn. v. Sapp, 358 Ga. App. 632, 634-635 (856 SE2d 28) (2021); Doe v. Prudential-Bache/A. G. Spanos Realty Partners, 268 Ga. 604, 605 (492 SE2d 865) (1997); Rautenberg, 351 Ga. App. at 505 (1).

In the absence of a substantially similar prior crime, a plaintiff can show foreseeability and avoid summary judgment by proffering other evidence that the proprietor knew of the danger. See Med. Center Hosp. Auth. v. Cavender, 331 Ga. App. 469, 480 (6), n. 13 (771 SE2d 153) (2015); see also Piggly Wiggly Southern v. Snowden, 219 Ga. App. 148, 149 (1) (b) (464 SE2d 220) (1995) (crime foreseeable where property owner knew of danger); Matt v. Days Inns of America, 212 Ga. App. 792, 795 (443 SE2d 290) (1994) (numerous crimes in hotel parking lot, as well as in surrounding areas, many of which were violent crimes, raised question for jury on issue of foreseeability). The touchstone of the inquiry is whether the defendant had knowledge of the risk of criminal activity. Piggly Wiggly Southern, 219 Ga. App. at

149 (1) (b). Nevertheless, there remains no “duty to anticipate unlikely, remote, or slightly possible events.” (Citation omitted.) Traicoff v. Withers, 247 Ga. App. 428, 430 (544 SE2d 177) (2000).

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TACTICAL SECURITY GROUP, LLC v. CYNTHIA WELCH, (Ga. Ct. App. 2021).

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