Even in an age of frequent mass shootings in public places, a shooting can be unforeseeable and a supermarket has no duty to protect customers from random acts of violence, a Florida appeals court decided in a major win for businesses and liability insurers.
“…While events giving rise to this case are undeniably tragic, the law imposed no duty on Publix to protect against this unforeseeable criminal act,” a three-judge panel of Florida’s 4th District Court of Appeals wrote in its March 18 opinion.
The opinion upheld a Palm Beach Circuit Court decision in a lawsuit brought by the family of a toddler and his grandmother who were killed in a 2021 shooting at a Publix grocery store in Royal Palm Beach, Florida. The plaintiffs presented data showing almost 450 gun incidents and 137 gun deaths at national grocery chains from 2020 to 2022, including five deaths at Publix stores, the opinion explained…