Victims fight back: Trend to third-party liabilityAuthor(s): Faye A. SilasSource: ABA Journal, Vol. 71, No. 12 (December 1985), p. 25Published by: American Bar AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20758481 .
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LatuScope
Victims fight back Trend to third-party liability
Some have characterized the treatment
of victims of crime as a national disgrace. But now victims have fought back and have laws on their side. Forty two juris dictions have victim-compensation stat
utes, and last year Congress enacted the
Federal Victims of Crime Act. These acts
provide for financial aid and restitution for medical bills, lost income and other support for victims.
More crime victims are going after not
only offenders, but others alleged to have contributed to their harm through negli gence. Many courts are ruling in favor of
victims under this so-called third-party
liability theory. "More and more courts are finding for
victims of crime," said David Austern, director of education at the Association of Trial Lawyers of America in Washing ton. "Courts seem to be expanding the
rights of victims," said Austern, who is also chairman of the victims committee of the ABA Criminal Justice Section.
Between 1982 and 1985, awards in these cases totaled more than $100 mil lion, said Frank Carrington, a lawyer in
Virginia Beach, Va. He also co-founded Victims Assistance Legal Organization in 1979 to help crime victims. Carrington is studying third-party suits in a research project for the National Institutes of Jus tice.
Victims rights litigation represents a new speciality in the personal injury field, said Carrington, who helped write the ABA Guidelines for Fair Treatment of Crime Victims and Witnesses.
The case that tested the theory of
third-party liability involved singer Connie Francis, who sued Howard John son Motor Lodges in 1976 when she was
raped at one of the motels. She charged negligence in securing her room. A jury awarded her $2.5 million. Garzilli v. Howard Johnson Motor Lodges, 419 F.Supp. 1210. She later settled for $1.5 million.
The notoriety of the case came not only from prominence of the plaintiff but also because of the legal theory, which has prompted a host of similar suits, Austern said. The bulk of the lawsuits have
charged that landlords and public entities failed to secure premises adequately. The suits also have been brought against gov ernment and corrections agencies, alleg
ing negligent release of inmates, Carrington said.
Tracy Thurman (right)^a^id one of her attorneys, Judith Mauzaka, after a U.S. District Court jury in Hartford, Conn., awarded her $2.3 million.
In a case involving a 10-year-old girl who was raped in an unsecured boarded
up building, a Dallas state court ruled last year that the landlord had violated a
city ordinance that required owners to
keep their dwellings safe, Austern said. Nixon v. Mr. Property Management, 690
S.W.2d 546.
A 1985 case charged the Torrington, Conn., police department with failing to act on a woman's charges that her hus
band had beaten and abused her. It was filed in federal court and alleged that the
police department violated the 14th Amendment and the woman's civil rights. Thurman v. City of Torrington, 595
F.Supp. 1521. Few third-party suits
charge constitutional violations,
Carrington said. But in Thurman a pat tern and practice of discrimination was found because the police failed to follow up on the woman's charges, he said.
Defense lawyers agree that courts are
liberalizing the law in this area, making these cases more difficult to defend. It
Singer Connie Francis settled her suit for $1.5 million.
used to be that it was easy to grant summary judgment for the defendants, said Thomas Crisham, a Chicago defense lawyer.
These cases are harder to defend be
cause victims are more aware of tort
actions and plaintiffs' lawyers are using better experts and other tactics to prove their cases, said James Greene, a Wash
ington defense lawyer who represents apartment owners and management com
panies. ?Faye A. Silas
Firing: A 'bust'
Patricia Tinerella, 25, (above) of Omaha smiles after a Nebraska court upheld the state equal opportunity commission's award of $2,660 in back pay in September. A former employer had fired her because her 40-inch bust was "too distracting."
December 1985 . Volume 71 25
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