LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - Concert promoter Live Nation can be sued by the parents of a young woman who died after overdosing on drugs during its “Hard Fest” electronic music festival, a California appeals court ruled, rejecting Live Nation’s argument it had no duty to protect the woman from the consequences of ingesting illegal substances.
Katie Dix, 19, collapsed on a hot afternoon in August 2015 at the concert in Pomona, California and later died at the hospital from an overdose of MMDA and ethylone, commonly known as bath salt. Her parents sued Live Nation, claiming the promoter failed to provide enough emergency medical and security personnel or water for attendees who suffered from the effects of taking illegal drugs.
A trial court granted Live Nation a summary judgment, agreeing the company couldn’t be found liable for Dix’s death. The Court of Appeal for the Second District in Los Angeles reversed on Oct. 26, ruling a jury had to decide whether Live Nation had breached its duty to protect concertgoers against foreseeable risks. The use of illegal drugs was one such risk, the court ruled.
“We conclude that use of illicit drugs and risk of overdoses at electronic music festivals and the need for immediate and adequate medical care are foreseeable occurrences, and public policy considerations do not justify precluding an injured festival attendee’s claims against the festival operator,” the court ruled in a 37-page opinion released late last month.
Live Nation provided elaborate security measures including a no-questions-asked drug dump outside the concert entrance and patting down concertgoers for illegal substances before they went in. California law doesn’t establish a duty for anyone to rescue another person, the appeals court ruled, but it does establish a “special relationship” between businesses and customers that a jury could interpret to include providing enough trained medical personnel to save a concertgoer dying from a drug overdose.
Department stores, for example, are required to provide automatic cardiac defibrillators in case a customer suffers a heart attack on the premises.
“A reasonably thoughtful electronic music festival operator would consider the likelihood that illegal drugs would be distributed and consumed at the festival and that drug overdoses would occur,” the court said. “An attendee’s severe injury or death from a drug overdose was a risk created, in part, by an electronic music festival operator’s negligence in failing to provide adequate security and appropriate medical care.”
The court rejected Live Nation’s argument that the proximate cause of Dix’s death was her decision to ingest illegal drugs. It also distinguished this case from a decision where a venue was found not liable for drug-related injuries that occurred after attendees had left, saying Dix was injured while she was still at the festival.