Thomas v. General Elec. Co.

• Court: Supreme Court of Tennessee
• Citation: 494 S.W.2d 493
• Parties: Margery Diane THOMAS, Appellant, v. GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY et al., Appellees.
• Decision Date: 07 May 1973

Page 493

494 S.W.2d 493 Margery Diane THOMAS, Appellant,
v.
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY et al., Appellees. Supreme Court of Tennessee. May 7, 1973.

Wilkes, Neely & McCullough, William I. McLain, Memphis, for appellant.

Albert T. McRae, Edward M. Kaplan, Memphis, for appellees.

OPINION

CHATTIN, Justice.

Appellant brought this suit against the appellees, General Electric Company and Pinkerton, Inc. Appellees filed a motion to dismiss for the failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The trial court sustained the motion. From this ruling an appeal was perfected to this Court.

The complaint, in pertinent part, provides:

2. 'That on August 30, 1971, at approximately 11:14 P.M. plaintiff had finished her night's work and duties as an employee of the defendant, General Electric Company, at its lamp plant at 1356 Riverside Drive in Memphis, Tennessee; that she had punched the time clock, had left the building in which said lamp plant is housed where she performed her work, and had reached the parking lot maintained by said defendant for the use and convenience of its employees on an unassigned and optional basis, which lot is located on the west side of Riverside Drive south of the extension of West Olive Street in Memphis, Tennessee. As the plaintiff approached and entered her automobile on said lot she was accosted by a young male white who drew a knife and forced her to drive her car out the gate to said lot and to various parts of the City of Memphis during the course of which she was horribly threatened, ravished and abused until early on the morning of August 31, 1971, at which time she was released by said assailant who drove plaintiff's car back to said parking lot where his own vehicle was parked.

4. 'Plaintiff alleges that the defendant, General Electric Company, through its agents, servants and employees, was guilty of gross negligence in that it knew, or in the exercise of reasonable and ordinary care, should have known that its said lamp plant and parking lot were located in a dangerous high-crimerisk area of the City of Memphis; that dangerous characters frequented the lot; that these conditions involved an unreasonable risk of harm to the plaintiff and to other female employees of said defendant in going to their cars on said lot late at night and that said conditions created a likelihood that the plaintiff, or some other female employee of said defendant, would suffer just such an injury as was inflicted upon the plaintiff; that said defendant recognized the peculiar hazard involved for its female employees and fenced the lot in question, constructed an elevated guardhouse, required that all cars parking on said lot bear a proper General Electric...