Anita Gayle Staples and Garland B. Staples, Plaintiffs/appellants v. Cbl & Associates, Inc., Proffitts for Women…

Summary

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that a shopping mall owner, its security contractor, and an anchor department store owed a duty of care to a customer abducted from the mall, because her report of a stalker to Proffitts employees—who offered to call security and one of whom promised to watch for the man—made the harm foreseeable under McClung's balancing test, reinforced by evidence of hundreds of prior crimes at the mall. The Court further held that reasonable minds could differ on whether the customer was at least fifty percent at fault for returning to the mall after reaching her truck, so comparative fault had to be resolved by a jury rather than on summary judgment. It reversed the Court of Appeals and remanded for a jury trial, expressly reserving the question of breach. Justice Holder concurred separately, agreeing with the result but objecting that the majority's duty-balancing approach improperly transfers fact-finding functions from the jury to the trial court.