Court Opinion

ID: 9711363
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:30:19.477531+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:04.168980
License: Public Domain

BOEHM, J.,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. Although it seems probable to me that this case would ultimately be resolved against the plaintiff on one or more of several grounds, I do not believe that summary judgment is appropriate on the basis that the hotel owed Ellis no duty. I am not contending as the majority suggests, that there is a duty to refrain from giving out room numbers in all circumstances. Rather, in my view, every operator of a hotel has a duty to its guests (and its guests’ guests) to take reasonable steps to preserve their safety against foreseeable harms. See Burrell v. Meads, 569 N.E.2d 637, 639 (Ind.1991) (“landowner owes the highest duty to an invitee: a duty to exercise reasonable care for his protection while he is on the landowner’s premises”); see also Restatement (Second) of Torts § 314A(2) (1997); 40 Am.Jur.2d § 110 (1999) (a hotel guest has a right to rely on belief that its operator is exercising reasonable care for his or her safety). Whether it is unreasonable to give out the room number of a guest is, it seems to me, not susceptible to a blanket resolution, which is the effect of holding that the hotel owes no duty not to disclose a room number. Rather, I would think it is a jury question whether it was a breach of the general duty to take reasonable steps to preserve safety. See Beckett v. Clinton Prairie School Corp., 504 N.E.2d 552, 554 (Ind.1987) (whether defendant exercised reasonable care is a factual determination for the jury).
This case presents a number of other factors that may bar recovery. Even if disclosure of the room number under the circumstances was found to be unreasonable, the trier of fact might well conclude that any causal chain was broken by the voluntary opening of the door by the inhabitants. Nonetheless, I would not grant summary judgment on the basis of the absence of duty. Hotel guests should be able to rely on their host’s taking reasonable precautions for their protection.
SULLIVAN, J., concurs.