Martinelli v. Hopkins

• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: BOURCIER, Justice.
• Citation: Martinelli v. Hopkins, 787 A.2d 1158 (R.I. 2001)
• Decision Date: 18 December 2001
• Docket Number: No. 99-540-Appeal.,99-540-Appeal.
• Parties: Michael L. MARTINELLI v. Frank L. HOPKINS, Jr., et al.

787 A.2d 1158

Michael L. MARTINELLI v. Frank L. HOPKINS, Jr., et al.

No. 99-540-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

December 18, 2001.

Present: LEDERBERG, BOURCIER, FLANDERS, and GOLDBERG, JJ.

Brian Cunha, Fall River, MA, for plaintiff.

Kathleen M. Powers, Paul E. Phillips, John Glasson, Rebecca T. Partington, Marc DeSisto, Providence, for defendant.

OPINION

BOURCIER, Justice.

In this civil negligence action, a Superior Court trial jury returned a verdict for $2 million in favor of the plaintiff, Michael L. Martinelli (Martinelli or the plaintiff), and against the defendants, Frank L. Hopkins, Jr., Showtime Security and the Town of Burrillville (the defendants). Only the cross-appeals of the plaintiff and the Town of Burrillville (the town) are now before us.¹ In those appeals, we are called upon to determine whether the trial justice erred in denying the town's trial and post-trial motions for judgment as a matter of law; its motion for a new trial; and whether he erred in his application of G.L. 1956 § 9-31-3 of the Governmental Tort Liability Act by limiting the town's liability to Martinelli at $100,000 without interest.

I Facts/Procedural History

On August 22, 1992, at approximately 12:20 a.m., the plaintiff was severely injured while on property owned by Frank L. Hopkins, Jr. (Hopkins), when a rotted tree fell upon him. At the time, he was attending Hopkins's thirteenth annual outdoor party, known as the "Patoad Festival" (the festival), with approximately 4,000 other partygoers. As a result of his injuries, the plaintiff was rendered a paraplegic and he later commenced this negligence action against the defendants to recover for his damages.

Hopkins's five-acre undeveloped property where the festival was held is in the village of Harrisville in the Town of Burrillville.² Hopkins had conducted his first outdoor festival there in 1979, attracting approximately 175 people, who paid a moderate entrance fee. Once inside, the participants could indulge themselves with unlimited quantities of beer and sandwiches while jubilantly exulting to the loud music provided by several rock-and-roll bands. The unlimited beer, food and loud music proved to be a good drawing card for Hopkins' festival and, as news of the festival spread, so did the size of the crowds that it attracted.

In 1986, when Hopkins applied to the Burrillville Town Council for his annual festival entertainment license, he encountered, for the first time, a complaining group of neighbors joined by the town's chief of police, Walter Lees (Chief Lees). They complained about the large crowds, the ever increasing parking and traffic hazards, the noise, and the petty vandalism caused by the unruly crowds attending the festival. The town council lent a receptive ear to their complaints and denied Hopkins'srequest for the festival's entertainment license. A Superior Court justice, however, lent a more sympathetic ear to Hopkins's request for mandatory injunctive relief and ordered the town council to issue Hopkins an entertainment license for his 1986 festival.

In 1990, the Burrillville Town Council, aware that in 1988 more than 500 people had attended the festival and had left behind a deluge of neighborhood complaints, imposed conditions upon the granting of Hopkins's 1990 festival license. It required that:

"1. A private security firm be hired by [Hopkins] at his expense for parking and security reasons and with approval of Police Chief Wallace F. Lees.

"2. That the music is shut down at 12:00 P.M. [sic] Midnight.

"3. That an adequate number of Port-a-Johns be rented to handle the amount of people attending.

"4. That [Hopkins] be responsible for the cost for any call in of off-duty police officers deemed necessary by the Chief of Police as a substitute for assigned detail officers."

That year, almost 1,200 people attended the event.

By 1991, festival attendance had swelled to around 2,000 and, in anticipation of his 1992 festival, Hopkins ordered 4,000 tickets to be printed. He, and some friends, then cleared almost two acres on his festival grounds to accommodate the expected large turnout, and erected plastic snow fences around the perimeter of the cleared area by attaching the fences to "bang pipes" and numerous trees surrounding the cleared area.

However, it appears that to keep his port-a-john and security costs down, Hopkins grossly underestimated the beer retention capabilities of his anticipated festival attendees and misrepresented their expected number. Thus, despite ordering 31,000 gallons of beer to be freely available for consumption by his expected 4,000 ticket holders, Hopkins elected to lease only 50 port-a-johns to accommodate the festival's beer drinkers. Making matters worse, he engaged Showtime Security(Showtime) to provide needed security personnel to control the expected festival attendees, but told David Luongo (Luongo), Showtime's president, that only 2,000 to 2,500 people were expected to attend. As a result, Luongo decided that only thirty-eight security workers would be required to safely secure the festival.

The record reveals that on previous festival occasions, Chief Lees had assigned only three police officers to assist him in handling routine police duty outside the festival grounds. However, for the August 22, 1992 festival, he decided to assign four additional officers to direct traffic and parking on the streets leading to the festival grounds and to control the incoming and outgoing festival attendees. That evening the festival grounds quickly filled and became overcrowded, with attendance swelling to approximately 4,500 festival revelers.³

At the festival that evening, free-flowing beer was served to the partygoers in mugs and steins, as well as in one-gallon, five-gallon and quart-sized containers. Soon, numerous people were intoxicated and became unruly and out of control. It was not long before long lines of people began queuing at the port-a-johns. However, many others, unwilling or unable to wait their turn to use the inadequate port-a-johns, decided that the wooded areas beyond the plastic fence would prove more accessible to their needs. Consequently, a steady stream of people began stepping over and pushing down the plastic snow fences to gain access to the adjoining woodlands, where the peace and solitude of its plush foliage would be interrupted only by the recurrent gentle sibilant sounds of previously consumed beer.

Meanwhile, although Chief Lees had become aware that many in the crowd were intoxicated and out of control, unfortunately he made no attempt to close down the festival before its scheduled midnight closure time. As reason for this failure, he cited his fear that any attempt by his seven police officers to do so could create a riot and imperil the safety of those police officers. Indeed, despite the fact that a condition imposed upon the entertainment license was that the music had to end precisely at midnight, Chief Lees permitted the band to continue playing for an additional fifteen minutes after the midnight deadline. Notwithstanding, at 12:30 a.m., the band was still playing for the unruly festivalgoers, and it was not until then that Chief Lees threatened to confiscate the band's equipment if it did not stop playing. It did.

In the meantime, however, between 12 and 12:20 a.m., while the Patoad festivities continued to rage, five or six rowdy and unruly revelers staggered by the plaintiff as he was seated five to ten feet in front of one of the plastic perimeter fences. The revelers were pushing and shoving each other toward the wooded area beyond the plastic fence and, as they did, a rotted tree toppled and fell upon the plaintiff. It appears that the plastic fence over which the revelers had crossed, and which apparently had been attached to the rotted tree for support, could not carry the revelers' weight and, apparently, pulled down the tree.

Within seconds of the incident, a Showtime security guard arrived and removed the rotted tree from on top of the plaintiff. Minutes later, Chief Lees was notified and he ordered two police officers to enter the property and to investigate the reported accident. One of the officers returned and advised Chief Lees that someone had been injured. Chief Lees then immediately went to the scene. Upon observing the severity of the plaintiff's injuries, Chief Lees quickly called the police station dispatcherand requested rescue personnel from the village of Glendale to respond.⁴ The plaintiff was taken to and treated at Rhode Island Hospital and subsequently was released. He later commenced this action against Hopkins, Showtime and the town.

Before trial, the town moved for partial summary judgment, contending that the $100,000 statutory cap provided by § 9-31-3 was applicable. At first, the plaintiff's counsel objected to the town's motion, but he later withdrew his objection. Subsequently, by agreement of counsel for all parties, a consent order was entered granting the town's motion for partial summary judgment, and the town's liability was capped pursuant to § 9-31-3.

After a trial on the merits, a Superior Court jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff and against all three defendants, Hopkins, Showtime and the Town of Burrillville. It awarded the plaintiff $2 million for his injuries and damages and determined the comparative negligence of Hopkins, Showtime and the town to be 60 percent, 20 percent, and 20 percent, respectively.

Finding that the town was acting in a clear governmental function when it issued the entertainment license to Hopkins, the trial justice found that the town's conduct under the circumstances was egregious, thus precluding it from seeking refuge from its liability to the plaintiff under the public duty doctrine. Consequently, and in accordance with the agreed-upon partial summary judgment order that previously had been entered, the trial justice limited the plaintiff's recovery...