The Law Office Of David W. HolubThe Law Office Of David W. Holub

The Law Office Of David W. HolubThe Law Office Of David W. Holub

Sexual Abuse and Assault

Like faulty security cases in general, a customer or other invitee coming onto the premises or property of another, may have a basis to sue for injuries suffered as a reasonably foreseeable consequence of a sexual assault or attack due to a failure to provide appropriate security. Cases involving sexual assault tend to more frequently involve hotels, motels and restaurants more than other businesses.

A motel innkeeper who owes a duty to use ordinary care to maintain its property in a reasonably safe condition suitable for the use of its guests so as to be subject to liability to its guests for physical harm caused by the accidental, negligent, or intentionally harmful acts of third persons, is also subject to liability for failure to exercise reasonable care to:

  • Discover that such acts are being done or are likely to be done, or
  • Give a warning adequate to enable the guest to avoid the harm, or otherwise to protect him against it.

When a motel operator is under a legal obligation to exercise reasonable care to discover the danger posed by and provide reasonable security precautions against injury from the foreseeable criminal acts of a third party, it is no defense to the motel operator’s liability to say that the injury complained of was the result of the criminal act of that third party.

Motels and restaurants operating in crime ridden areas have a legal obligation to survey and detect changing crime trends in their particular location. Then they must take the knowledge gained from the security survey, and change existing security measures at the business.  A motel that installs bullet proof glass at the night desk to protect cashiers from being harmed, but does nothing to protect guests on the premises from being the victim of gun activity known to be ongoing at the same motel as a part of prostitution or drug dealing, may very well be liable to the guest who is assaulted while on the premises.

If you have been injured as a reasonably foreseeable and probable consequence of a failure to provide appropriate security, please call, we are experienced in handling such cases and are willing to help.