Defendants in civil cases have won an important victory at the Georgia Court of Appeals, which attempted to clarify how defendants can blame plaintiffs’ injuries on third parties who have not been sued.
The 6-1 decision by an expanded court panel favored the owner and manager of a defendant apartment complex who had lost a $5.25 million verdict to a man who was injured in a criminal attack as he walked between the complex and a nearby convenience store. The court said the apartment complex should have been allowed to ask the jury to apportion some of the responsibility for what the plaintiff claimed was negligent security to the store, even though it was unclear who owned it. The unknown attackers also were included on the jury form, but the jury assigned no responsibility for the plaintiff’s injuries to them. The jury found the plaintiff himself was in part at fault for his own injuries, however, meaning he couldn’t collect the entire $5.25 million.
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