Court Opinion

ID: 9497144
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:44:32.932573+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:01.744252
License: Public Domain

BRIGHT, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
In this diversity case, this court must apply Missouri law as expounded by the Missouri courts. Under present Missouri case law, the magistrate judge did not err in determining that under the undisputed facts, the defendant Target did not incur a duty to protect the plaintiffs from a criminal attack against them in the Target store parking lot from unknown third parties.
The precedent established today may or may not apply to similar cases arising in other jurisdictions. I would particularly note that other cases in state courts express most expansive concepts of security duties owed to business invitees. See, e.g., Galloway v. Bankers Trust Co., 420 N.W.2d 437, 440 (Iowa 1988) (holding that a mall owner should have foreseen the likelihood of a violent act based on the site’s history of non-violent crimes, including shoplifting), and cases cited therein.