Court Opinion

ID: 9652793
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:32:05.49875+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:54.143936
License: Public Domain

WELLIVER, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent and concur in the dissent of Donnelly, J.
On April 26, 1983, this Court tested the water on making Missouri citizens liable in *67damages for injuries inflicted by criminals to persons on their property. Virginia D. v. Madesco Inv. Corp., 648 S.W.2d 881 (Mo. banc 1983). Virginia D. recovered damages for rape by an assailant in a hotel restroom. While the majority indicated that they were only enlarging “inkeeper’s liability,” the recovery was awarded, not to a guest of the hotel, but to a patron of Mrs. Hulling’s restaurant, one of the building tenants.
Today, all of the Missouri business community is clearly and unequivocally saddled with liability for criminal acts committed against persons on the property of the business. Every person in Missouri is going to find the cost of guards, security systems, and higher liability insurance premiums added to the cost of the groceries and products sold by the business establishments. All of this in addition to the taxes we pay to have the finest Highway Patrol, city and county police forces possible. As was suggested by Donnelly, J., if there be social policy or reason for making this change, it should be done by the legislature, not by the courts. No better words can be found to describe what the majority does today than the words which my brother Robertson directed at me when he felt that by an opinion I had invaded the province of the legislature.
We have come the full circle. In doing so we prove the truth that the fruit of judicial trespass into areas properly reserved for the legislative branch of government is not a blessing, but a curse.
Lippard v. Houdaille Industries, Inc., 715 S.W.2d 491, 496 (Mo. banc 1986) (footnote omitted).
What greater curse can be cast upon Missouri property owners than that juries be permitted to assess against them damages for the acts of criminals committed against other persons on their property.
I would affirm the trial court.