Intown Lessee Associates Llc v. Howard

• Decision Date: 25 August 2011
• Docket Number: No. 2009–CA–01987–SCT.,2009–CA–01987–SCT.
• Citation: 67 So.3d 711
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: INTOWN LESSEE ASSOCIATES, LLC; InTown Lessee Services, LLC; IT Tenant RBS, LLC; and Timothy Tuckerv.Michael Keith HOWARD, Individually, and Shannon Poole, Individually.

67 So.3d 711

INTOWN LESSEE ASSOCIATES, LLC; InTown Lessee Services, LLC; IT Tenant RBS, LLC; and Timothy Tucker

v.Michael Keith HOWARD, Individually, and Shannon Poole, Individually.

No. 2009–CA–01987–SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

June 30, 2011.Rehearing Denied Aug. 25, 2011.

William ‘Trey’ Jones, III, Joseph Anthony Sclafani, attorneys for appellant.

James Ashley Ogden, James W. Smith, Jr., Wendy Michelle Yuan, attorneys for appellee.EN BANC.KITCHENS, Justice, for the Court:

¶ 1. Michael Howard and Shannon Poole were awarded a four-million-dollar jury verdict against InTown,¹ an extended-stay motel, for injuries each sustained as victims of an armed robbery in the motel. Aggrieved, InTown appealed. Finding no error, this Court affirms the trial court's judgment.

Facts

¶ 2. Michael Keith Howard and Shannon Poole had rented a room at InTown in June 2008, where the couple temporarily resided while waiting for a home to become available in Belhaven, a residential area in Jackson, Mississippi. On June 27, 2008, at approximately 9:30 p.m., Howard left the motel room to take his dog for a walk. As he was returning to the room, three men burst through the door, demanded money from the couple, and ransacked the room. One of the assailants hit Howard in the face with a hand gun, then pointed the gun at Poole's head and demanded money. Howard and Poole denied having money in the room. Undeterred, one of the assailants flipped the mattress off the bed, while Poole was on top of the mattress, causing her to be pushed against a wall. The men found between $700 and $900 under the mattress. The assailants took the money, Howard's and Poole's drivers' licenses, and Poole's cell phone. Following the altercation, Howard and Poole were treated for various injuries that each had sustained during the attack. Initially, Howard was treated for broken bones in his face and numerous contusions and lacerations to his body. Prior to trial, Howard had to undergo facial reconstructive surgery. Poole sustained contusions and bruises in the attack, followed by soreness and severe psychological damage. Howard and Poole were under the continuing care of physicians and psychiatrists. No arrests were made in connection with the armed robbery and physical assaults.

¶ 3. Howard and Poole filed their joint complaint against the defendants on July 18, 2008, alleging: (1) that they were invitees of InTown; (2) that they were seriously injured because the defendants had failed to fulfill their joint, several, and collective duties to use reasonable care and to take adequate and reasonable security precautions or measures to protect invitees of InTown, including the plaintiffs, from foreseeable harm and danger, including the harm suffered by Plaintiffs; (3) that, before June 27, 2008, InTown knew or should have known that it had inadequate security, that strangers, trespassers and loiterers frequently came onto its property, that the wooden fence surrounding part of its property was in disrepair, that the locks on the guest room doors were not working properly, and that the property was not reasonably safe; (4) that InTown had failed to remedy or repair the unsafe conditions and inadequacies of the property; (5) that InTown had a duty to the plaintiffs to make sure that the facilities, including all common areas, as well as guest rooms, were secure, safe, and fit for their particular purposes, that reasonable security measures were provided and maintained, that the property, including the fences surrounding part of the property and the locks on all guest room doors, were properly maintained, and that general upkeep of the property was performed; (6) that InTown had specific control and authority to make management decisions material to the personal safety and security of the plaintiffs; (7) that InTown had specific control and authority to make management decisions pertaining to the hiring, firing, and suspension of employees or security at the motel; (8) that InTown's agents and/or employees had warranted and/or covenanted that the property where Howard and Poole were staying as invitees was secure, safe, fit for its particular purpose, properly maintained, under proper upkeep, and reasonable security measures were provided and maintained for the plaintiffs, that security would be adequate to both protect the room where the plaintiffs were staying, as well as control and maintain the property and enforce security procedures, including but not limited to stopping loiterers and trespassers from entering the property and/or removing trespassers and loiterers from the property; (9) that InTown had failed to provide adequate first aid to the plaintiffs and had failed to instruct its employees on providing first aid to the plaintiffs; and (10) that InTown had failed to warn Howard and Poole of the atmosphere of violence that existed on and around the property, had failed to provide notice of the prior crimes occurring on and around the property, and had failed to warn the plaintiffs of the previous assaults and robberies occurring on and around the property.

¶ 4. Trial commenced on September 21, 2009, and the jury returned a general verdict in favor of Howard and Poole on September 23, 2009.

¶ 5. Numerous Jackson police officers testified at trial regarding calls for service at InTown. One officer had been called to InTown Suites as many as thirty times to respond to “armed robberies, auto burglaries, car jackings, just auto thefts; different things of that nature ... primarily major crimes.” The officer had advised the manager of InTown that the crime problem on the property could be eliminated by hiring professional security.

¶ 6. A lieutenant with the Jackson Police Department testified that “InTown Suites ... had a number of problems on their property. Specifically they've had robberies. They've had burglaries. Cars have been stolen. There's prostitution, drugs on the property; just anything you can think of.” The lieutenant testified that he was “advised that [InTown] had a courtesy officer. He was not a security officer, nor a security guard.... [T]he difference is a courtesy officer, he was not armed and was not properly trained to handle any type situations that would come up. He was only to call the police ... if he saw something there on the property criminal in nature.” The lieutenant also testified that he had told the manager of InTown that off-duty officers “would be more than willing to come out there and work off duty after we got off work to patrol the property....” The lieutenant further testified that he had instructed the manager that InTown should be informing its customers of the problems that had been occurring on the property, and that the manager had indicated that InTown would have no customers if such a warning were given.

¶ 7. Another officer testified that he was a part of the “delta strike force,” which the Jackson Police Department had formed in an effort to deter crimes along the Interstate 55 corridor. He testified that InTown Suites was a target area that the delta strike force was to patrol. He explained that the delta strike force's duty was to “go through [InTown's] parking lot, make sure there was no cars broke into, no illegal happenings on the streets or on the property itself. Mostly we were there to try to answer calls and be quick as possible in responding to calls that may happen at InTown Suites or other locations.” He also testified that, when the task force was on InTown property, no criminal activity transpired. He further testified that he had informed the manager of InTown that there was a crime problem on its property and that “they should try to go ahead and get a professionally trained security service” to solve the crime problem on the property.

¶ 8. Charles Campbell, the property manager of InTown Suites in Jackson on the date that Howard and Poole were attacked in their room, testified that one of InTown's duties was “to ensure that customers were provided adequate protection from crime that would occur on the property.” He also testified that he was in contact with his regional manager on a daily basis and that he often informed regional and corporate officials that there was a crime problem at the Jackson property. Campbell testified that he had asked his regional manager to provide security at the Jackson location of InTown Suites on more than one occasion, and that the regional manager always had told him that InTown had insufficient funds to hire armed security.

¶ 9. Several expert witnesses also were called to testify. Kenneth Goodrum, a commander with the Jackson Police Department, was accepted without objection as a plaintiffs' expert “in the area of security with emphasis in the area of premises.” Commander Goodrum testified that he had reviewed “all the documentation and the evidence that was given to [him,] as well as the depositions and offense reports” in this case. Commander Goodrum had completed a crime history report of the Jackson location of InTown, and was able to determine that, in the two-and-a-half-year period prior to Howard and Poole's injuries, “eight armed robberies, 32 auto thefts, 55 auto burglaries, six hold-up alarms, 15 simple assaults ... three armed robberies of businesses, four men with a gun, two vandalisms, 48 disturbances and 12 threats” had occurred on the property of InTown. Without objection, Commander Goodrum testified that the assault of Michael Howard and Shannon Poole “was preventable. And my opinion is that if they would have hired off-duty police officers or armed security guards to patrol that parking lot and patrol their property, it would have been able to be prevented.”

¶ 10. Plaintiffs deposed David Groves, a regional director of operations for InTown. Groves testified that approximately twelve InTown properties have armed security on the property, and that the decision to provide armed security guards at a particular...