Court Opinion

ID: 9752064
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 17:32:35.719878+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:06.197050
License: Public Domain

SCHWELB, Associate Judge,
concurring in the result:
I concur in the affirmance of the judgment, but on a different ground. Mrs. Clement faded, in my view, to show by expert testimony either that Peoples had violated the applicable standard of care or that any alleged violation was the proximate cause of her husband’s murder.
The principal theory espoused by Dr. Bopp, Mrs. Clement’s expert witness, was that Peoples should have conducted an “armed sweep” of the parking lot at closing time. Dr. Bopp opined that the security guard, on seeing the red Jaguar, would have been obliged to call the police. These steps, *430according to Dr. Bopp, would have saved Mr. Clement’s life. Dr. Bopp did not, however, establish that his personal opinion coincided with the national (or indeed local) standard of care. In fact, he did not assert that a single store in the country had ever adopted such a procedure. His testimony was therefore insufficient as a matter of law to establish the standard of care. Toy v. District of Columbia, 549 A.2d 1, 7-8 (D.C.1998).
Mrs. Clement also claimed that Peoples violated the standard of care by failing to provide proper lights outside the store. Even if the testimony and exhibits proffered in support of this theory had been admitted, however, there was no showing, nor could there be, that this alleged breach of duty “ha[d] a substantial and direct causal link” to [Mr. Clement’s] murder. See District of Columbia v. Freeman, 477 A.2d 713, 716 (D.C.1984). Indeed, I do not discern any basis for concluding that there was any causal link whatever between the fighting and the death of the plaintiffs husband.
Mrs. Clement did not come close to showing that the tragedy was Peoples’ fault, or that an impartial jury could reasonably find that it was. I would therefore affirm the judgment for the foregoing reasons without reaching the rather perplexing (to me) issue of “foreseeability.”