Jane Doe, Plaintiff-Appellee v. Linder Construction Company, Inc., Linder Realty Company, Inc., Elwood Carpenter…

Summary

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that the defendants were entitled to summary judgment because the criminal assault was not reasonably foreseeable from their handling of the plaintiff's house key, and the criminal acts were superseding causes as a matter of law. The defendants' duty was limited to exercising reasonable care in managing the retained key, and the evidence did not establish that their conduct breached that duty or proximately caused the plaintiff's injuries. Justice Daughtrey, dissenting, would have affirmed the Court of Appeals because disputed facts supported submitting the duty, breach, foreseeability, and proximate-cause issues to a jury.