Clement v. Peoples Drug Store, Inc., No. 92-CV-201.

• Docket Nº: No. 92-CV-201.
• Citation: 634 A.2d 425
• Case Date: December 02, 1993
• Court: Court of Appeals of Columbia District

634 A.2d 425

Mary H. CLEMENT, Appellant,
v.
PEOPLES DRUG STORE, INC., Appellee.

No. 92-CV-201.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued October 15, 1993.

Decided December 2, 1993.

634 A.2d 426

David T. Smorodin, with whom Allen T. Eaton and W. David Allen, Washington, DC, were on the brief, for appellant.

Jonathan A. Constine, with whom A. Lee Bentley and William D. Nussbaum, Washington, DC, were on the brief, for appellee.

Before TERRY, SCHWELB and KING, Associate Judges.

KING, Associate Judge:

This is an appeal by the plaintiff in this civil action, from a judgment entered after the grant of a defense motion for directed verdict, where the trial court found that appellant failed to establish a prima facie case of negligence. Appellant asks this court to hold that an employer, here appellee Peoples Drug Store ("Peoples"), is liable for damages to the survivors of one of its employees, who was murdered by an unknown third person when the employee departed the premises after closing time, where some criminal activity had been reported in the vicinity of the store. We conclude, under these circumstances, that there is no basis for holding the employer liable and, therefore, we affirm the trial court.¹

I.

Shortly after midnight on July 5, 1988, James Clement, manager of the Peoples Drug Store at the Naylor Road Shopping Center, was shot and killed by an unknown assailant. The shooting occurred after Clement and security guard Jerome Brown secured and closed the store premises. Brown headed toward the bus stop and Clement began walking toward his car, where his wife was waiting, in the parking lot directly in front of Peoples. As he neared his car, a red Jaguar which had been parked further away in the same lot started up and sped toward him. The Jaguar stopped, and a man armed with a pistol stepped out and ordered Clement to drop the bag he was carrying. Although he complied and dropped his briefcase,² Clement was shot once in the chest. He died shortly afterward as a result of the wound. The assailants fled without taking the briefcase or any other property from Clement.

Appellant, the deceased's widow, filed this action seeking damages from Peoples for

634 A.2d 427

their failure "to exercise proper care in ensuring a properly lighted and reasonably safe and secure environment in the vicinity of its store . . . ." Further, appellant claimed that Peoples knew, or should have known, of the inherent danger due to the store's location in a high crime area and failed to provide adequate security

At trial the plaintiff presented the testimony of an expert criminologist, Dr. William Bopp, who testified that Peoples was "on notice" about the dangerousness of the shopping center and that Clement's death was reasonably foreseeable. Dr. Bopp also testified that Peoples should have implemented a policy that included an armed guard going out into the parking lot, prior to the store's closing at night, to inspect the parking lot area to ensure the safety of departing employees. If the guard found any suspicious activity, the police should then be notified.

At the close of appellant's case-in-chief, Peoples moved for a directed verdict. The trial court granted the motion, ruling that "the record includes no evidence that would permit a reasonable juror to find that Peoples had or should have had a heightened or increased awareness of the danger of this particular criminal act." Judgment was accordingly entered for Peoples, and this appeal followed.

II.

We begin our analysis by observing that if "a party has been fully heard with respect to an issue and there is no legally sufficient evidentiary basis for a reasonable jury to have found for that party with respect to that issue, the Court may grant a motion for judgment as a matter of law . . . ." Super.Ct.Civ.R. 50(a)(1). When a party moves for a directed verdict, the evidence must be viewed "in the light most favorable to the party against whom the verdict is sought." Bauman v. Sragow, 308 A.2d 243, 244 (D.C.1973) (citation omitted). A verdict may be directed only if it is clear that the plaintiff has not established a prima facie case. See Marshall v. District of Columbia, 391 A.2d 1374, 1379 (D.C.1978).

In our review of a directed verdict we are required to give the non-moving party "the benefit of all reasonable inferences from the evidence." Corley v. BP Oil Corp., 402 A.2d 1258, 1263 (D.C.1979). After reviewing this record in its most favorable light, we are satisfied, as a matter of law, that there was insufficient evidence to establish a prima facie case of negligence on the part of Peoples. "At trial, the plaintiff bears the burden of proving negligence by a preponderance of the evidence. He must establish the applicable standard of care, show that the defendant deviated from it, and demonstrate that the defendant's conduct was the proximate cause of his injury." Beard v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 587 A.2d 195, 199 (D.C.1991) (citing Toy v. District of Columbia, 549 A.2d 1, 6 (D.C.1988)). Here the injury was directly caused by an intervening criminal act committed by some unknown third party. Under those circumstances, "the defendant will be liable only if the criminal act is so foreseeable that a duty arises to guard against it." McKethean v. Washington Metro. Area Transit Auth. ("WMATA"), 588 A.2d 708, 717 (D.C.1991). Therefore, in this case, in order to survive a motion for a directed verdict, appellant was obligated to present evidence establishing that the murder was so foreseeable that it became Peoples' duty to guard against it by adhering to a recognized standard of care, that Peoples breached that standard of care, and that the failure to exercise due care proximately caused Clement's death. Because we conclude that appellant did not show that the murder was reasonably foreseeable, and that her failure to make such a showing is dispositive against her claim, we limit our analysis to that issue.

The only evidence presented by appellant relating to that point was provided by Dr. Bopp, who testified that in his opinion the murder was reasonably foreseeable. Dr. Bopp relied upon police reports of criminal activity in the shopping center for the three years prior to the shooting of Clement. In analyzing Dr. Bopp's testimony, the trial court observed that "much of Dr. Bopp's opinion was based on his view that there is a special or increased...