MIAMI (Legal Newsline) – A security company at a Florida long-term care facility is not responsible for the injuries of a visitor shot by an 87-year-old man.
The state’s Third District Court of Appeal ruled that way Jan. 6 in Margery Glickman’s lawsuit against Kindred Hospitals East and the security company it hired, Nor-Seg Security Services.
The court wrote that Nor-Seg’s contract with Kindred only required it to protect hospital staff and patients. It rejected arguments that Nor-Seg controlled security protocols at Kindred and that because a company official testified security officers were stationed to “promote” the safety of visitors, the company must be held liable.
“(T)he materials put forward by the Glickmans are not sufficient for a reasonable jury to return a verdict that the security company expressly or by implication agreed in contract or voluntarily undertook to expand the scope of services and liability beyond those stated in the written contract,” the decision says.
Theobaldo Tames invited Glickman to Kindred Hospital in Coral Gables to visit a mutual friend who was a patient there. Tames had visited the friend daily for several months.
He signed in, as usual, and the person who signed him in was a hospital employee who recognized him. Tames did not appear anxious or upset.
Tames’ friend had died overnight, though the hospital employee did not know that. When Glickman met Tames in the waiting area, he pulled out a revolver, shot her several times then killed himself. Glickman survived her injuries.
The opinion notes shootings at Kindred facilities in Illinois (in 2012) and California (in 2002). Nor-Seg’s security officers were unarmed.