Court Opinion

ID: 9464595
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:38:00.547378+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:43.539042
License: Public Domain

K. K. HALL, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
While I concede that Apex Smelting Co. v. Burns, 175 F.2d 978 (7th Cir. 1949), the subsequent amendment of the licensing statute for detective agencies, and the subsequent interpretation favoring liability following the legislative amendment in Stewart Warner Corp. v. Burns International Security Services, Inc., 353 F.Supp. 1387 (N.D.Ill.1973), are analogous to the factual situation presented in the instant appeal, nevertheless they are of course not controlling. The South Carolina Supreme Court has held that, “[t]he decisions of courts from other jurisdictions are, of course, only persuasive authority . . .” South Carolina State Highway Department v. Wilson, 254 S.C. 360, 175 S.E.2d 391, 395 (1970).
Accordingly, I would hold as did the district judge that liability was properly imposed on Guardsmark based upon the pervasive scheme of regulation of security guards in South Carolina under the South Carolina Private Detective and Private Securities Agencies Act, S.C.Code §§ 56-646.1 through 646.17 (1975 Cum.Supp.).
Furthermore, the voice of all that is right and just cries out for affirmance in this case. The trial judge clearly recognized that the plaintiff had been wronged by the defendant even though he had difficulty in finding precedent for his rulings. We have passed the point in the law where there must be a writ for every right and we must, if necessary, articulate new law to cover new circumstances.
Here, the plaintiff did not ask for the protection of guards, and could not have elected to refuse that protection. When the defendant took upon itself the responsibility of bringing armed guards into the plant, it, by its own act, made the plaintiff, and all other employees of like situation, subject to their dominance. The defendant made the plaintiff a helpless victim and subjected her to a danger created by it. She was raped and assaulted by the defendant’s man. Roberts was not a fellow employee. He was the plaintiff’s protector. There is no question but that the defendant would have been liable if Roberts had stood by and watched a third person assault the plaintiff. *1283Why then should not the defendant be liable when the guard, the paid protector, becomes the assailant?
I would affirm.