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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