Carrie Davis (Of Counsel-Atlanta, GA), Michael Manfredi (Partner-Atlanta, GA), and Chad Capers (Associate-Atlanta, GA) secured summary judgment in the State Court of Fulton County, Georgia, for Wilson Elser’s client, a real estate group primarily dealing in retail and mixed-use properties. The suit arose after an incident at a shopping center in Fulton County during which the plaintiff allegedly sustained serious injuries. The plaintiff alleged that she came to the shopping center to meet a coworker to exchange keys and then shop at a store there. While speaking with her coworker, an unknown assailant entered the plaintiff’s unlocked, running vehicle. As she attempted to stop the assailant, she was dragged through the parking lot, which was owned by a large American general merchandise retailer. Wilson Elser moved for summary judgment on the grounds that our client was neither an owner nor occupier of the premises; the plaintiff was not an invitee; the client did possess superior knowledge of criminal activity on the property; the plaintiff’s theory of proximate causation is conjectural; and the plaintiff’s own conduct was the proximate cause of her injuries ‒ due to a lack of due care and because she engaged in mutual combat.

The judge granted the motion, concurring with the Atlanta team’s arguments that the plaintiff failed to prove our client had the requisite knowledge of other criminal activity on the property to make this incident foreseeable, and that the plaintiff failed to prove any additional or different security measures would have prevented it.