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CONTACT: John H. Sullivan (916) 443-4900 or Fred J. Hiestand (916) 448-5100
The California Supreme Court ruled today that Kentucky Fried Chicken cannot be sued by a customer who claimed emotional distress after being held at gunpoint by a man who robbed the company's restaurant in Redondo Beach in 1993.
Writing for the majority in a four-to-three opinion, Justice Marvin Baxter said: "The public as a whole is much better served if would-be robbers are deterred by knowledge that their victims have no legal duty to comply with the robber's demands and are under no duty to surrender their property in order to protect third persons from possible injury."
Commenting on the decision, Civil Justice Association of California President John H. Sullivan said: "There is no question that everyone should take reasonable steps to prevent others from falling victim to crimes. And there is no question that a deplorable degree of injury and damage is being caused to innocent people by criminals in this state. But justice is not served by repeated attempts to blame innocent people and businesses just because the crime occurred on their property. To say that store owners as a matter of law have to comply with a criminal's demand would not only encourage criminal activity but could open the floodgates to lawsuits that victimize law-abiding citizens and ultimately punish consumers."
The customer and her attorney claimed that the restaurant was at fault because its employee did not respond quickly enough when she was ordered to open the cash register.
An appellate court upheld the trial court's denial of a motion to dismiss the suit against KFC.
The Wall Street Journal called attention to the case last February, saying the lower court's decision "combines the worst elements of our criminal and civil justice systems. The criminal goes free while KFC is victimized twice...."
Fred J. Hiestand, General Counsel for the Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC), filed a brief for Civil Justice Association of California supporting KFC and participated in the oral arguments before the Supreme Court when it heard the case in Los Angeles on October 9.
The Civil Justice Association of California is coalition of citizens, taxpayers, businesses, local governments, professionals, manufacturers, financial institutions, insurers, and medical organizations. Founded in 1978, as the Association of California Tort Reform, Civil Justice Association of California is the only statewide association dedicated solely to improving California's civil liability system.
