The Michigan Court of Appeals recently addressed the standard of care owed by a hotel to its guests related to criminal activity on the hotel’s premises in Burtiel Dean et al v. Southfield Lodge, Inc. d/b/a Marvin’s Garden Inn (Mich App, decided May 21, 2015).
The case arose out of a shooting that occurred dur
ing a party in a hotel room at Marvin’s Garden Inn in Southfield, Michigan. After attending a local fair, a large group of primarily underage people gathered in a room at the hotel for a birthday party. Shortly after the party began, an unidentified gunman entered the hotel room and opened fire, shooting until his gun ran out of ammunition. Several young partygoers were shot and one died as a result of injuries sustained.
The Plaintiffs, some of the injured partygoers, brought a suit against defendant, alleging several claims sounding in negligence and premises liability. The trial court allowed the case to proceed beyond summary disposition, finding that there was a genuine issue of material fact regarding the reasonableness of the hotel’s actions before the shooting occurred.
The Court of Appeals, however, reversed the decision of the trial court and found that summary disposition should have been entered in favor of the hotel. The Court of Appeals reasoned that hotels, along with merchants and landlords, do not have a general duty to anticipate and prevent criminal acts against its invitees. A hotel’s duty to its guests is limited to responding reasonably to situations occurring on the premises. Therefore, since the hotel in Burtiel called the police immediately after learning of the shooting, it had satisfied its duty. No evidence was submitted by the plaintiff to show that the hotel had failed to reasonably expedite police involvement.
Importantly, however, the court does not address whether this same standard would apply if the criminal activity were foreseeable and occurred in the common areas of the premises. In that case, the hotel may have had an elevated duty to its guests.
