Court Opinion

ID: 9585491
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:01:03.689644+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:48:52.941321
License: Public Domain

Blackburn, Judge,
dissenting.
In the present case, the robbery attempt and shooting happened very quickly. The perpetrator pulled up to the victim in the hotel parking lot and shot the victim without getting out of the car. The security guard was seated in a vehicle some 40-50 feet from the location of the incident. It was an unfortunate incident, but it was “not of such a nature as to reasonably allow the proprietor to intercede, warn its invitees, or otherwise act to prevent injury to [the victim].” Taylor v. Atlanta Center, Ltd., 208 Ga. App. 463, 466 (430 SE2d 841) (1993). The concept of foreseeability necessarily requires that Days Inn have such knowledge that it could reasonably anticipate that the subject crime would likely occur, and given that, the anticipated crime must be of such a nature that they could have reasonably prevented same. Liability must be based on fault, and there could be no fault absent the presence of both of these elements. To say otherwise is to make the proprietor the insurer of the injured party, which the law does not allow. Lau’s Corp. v. Haskins, 261 Ga. 491, 492 (1) (405 SE2d 474) (1991). Therefore, I support the trial court’s grant of Days Inns’ motion for summary judgment.
The evidence presented tended to show that the Atlanta Airport Days Inn is located in a high crime area with which knowledge plaintiff would be charged as a member of the general public. Days Inn had no greater ability or duty to anticipate specific intentional criminal acts by unknown persons than did the plaintiff. The presence of a security guard in the parking lot within 40 feet of the crime scene who did not have time to intercede clearly shows that Days Inn was prevented from protecting the plaintiff by the speed and nature of the attack, which it could not have reasonably anticipated. If the security guard, as provided, was not adequate, then at what density must the proprietor staff the premises? Absent a one-on-one ratio of security guard to invitee, how could Days Inn have prevented this incident? Presidents, with scores of armed secret service agents, have been assassinated by determined assailants. Surely we cannot require a heightened security for each guest at a hotel. This requirement would be unreasonable as a matter of law, would make the cost of providing *800hotel services prohibitive, and would result in a total abandonment of large geographic areas by businesses of every description.
Decided March 18, 1994
Reconsideration denied April 1, 1994
Bauer & Deitch, Craig T. Jones, for appellants.
Hicks, Casey & Young, William T. Casey, Jr., for appellee.