Court Opinion

ID: 9744853
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 22:19:48.023999+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:52.538358
License: Public Domain

SULLIVAN, J.,
concurring with separate opinion.
Under the facts of this case, I agree that the Pub assumed a duty of reasonable care to protect its patrons with respect to the adjacent parking lot. Bartolini was such a patron.
However, I disagree that Ember v. B.F.D., Inc., 490 N.E.2d 764 (Ind.Ct.App.1986) cited by the majority supports this conclusion. Ember had not yet become a patron "and was not even en route to the entrance. He had digressed from any intended entry into the premises...." 490 N.E.2d 764 (Sullivan, J., dissenting). The majority seems to conclude that a person intending to become a patron is cloaked with the same protection as a person who is or, immediately prior to the incident, had been a patron. I do not believe an assumed duty extends so far.
Furthermore, I do not believe that in Ember, generalized representations to members of the neighborhood, in order to obtain the alcoholic beverage license and to create general good will, constituted an assumption of a particular duty of protective care to the plaintiff or to the general public. Accordingly, I do not find Ember to be of any assistance in this case.
In all other respects I fully concur.