Franza v. PC Group Retail, LLC
This case involves an alleged trip and fall around a pedestrian ramp at an outdoor lifestyle shopping center filed against numerous defendants. Plaintiff alleged that defendant Professional Security Consultants (“PSC”), the security contractor at the mall hired to provide security to the property, including a reasonable inspection of the property for safety hazards, had a duty to third parties to exercise due care in the performance of undertaking those services, that it breached that duty under a theory of negligent undertaking, and that there was a safety hazard at the property that it knew about but did not protect customers from hazards. Plaintiff further alleged that the liability of the security company is coterminous with that of the hiring business itself and that it had the same duty as the property owner.
Defense filed a Motion for Summary Judgment or in the alternative Summary Adjudication on behalf defendant PSC arguing that defendant PSC had no duty to prevent plaintiff’s fall, that even if there was a duty, no act or omission by defendant PSC breached that duty, and that no act or omission by defendant PSC was a substantial factor in causing plaintiff’s injury. The Court granted defendant PSC’s motion for summary judgment pursuant to a stipulation on these bases, which also extinguished equitable rights by co-defendants.