Jury Awards Wounded
Teller $26.9 Million

Products Liability Law Used Against Alarm Firm

(Article From The National Law Journal)

A small Florida law firm has won a $26.9 million judgment for a bank teller shot and paralyzed in a robbery by applying products liability law to Foreline Security Corp., the company that designed and installed the bank's security alarm system.

"This was one of the first, if not the first, case to use product liability theory against a security alarm company," asserted Attorney Bryan W. Crews.

The plaintiff, Marishia Scott, 28, became a quadriplegic after being shot in the neck on March 20, 1999, during a robbery at the tiny Mt. Dora, FL, branch of United Southern Bank. Her co-worker, Heather Young, was shot dead during the robbery.

According to facts established at both the criminal trial of the robber, Fred Anderson Jr. and during the civil litigation, Anderson had visited the bank manager the day before the robbery posing as a college student researching a paper on the banking industry.  He saw that the VCR connected to the bank security cameras was sitting on a credenza in the manager's office.

During his criminal trial it was revealed that Anderson, a petty criminal well known to local police, had concluded he could successfully rob the bank by murdering the two tellers and removing the VCR.

During the robbery, a passerby summoned the police, who arrived within one minute. Anderson, who is now on death row, was arrested carrying a pistol, a wastepaper basket containing $70,000 and the VCR.

Attorney Bryan W. Crews built the case around the theory that the alarm system was a defective product, despite complying with the minimum standards of the Federal Bank Protection Act. The two crucial defects were the placement of the VCR in an unsecured location and the failure to install panic buttons at the teller stations.

"We had a criminologist testify that Foreline made the bank a soft target by placing the VCR in an unsecured place," Crews said.  "The fact the robber was arrested with the VCR under his arm made that a powerful argument."

VCR location pivotal

Foreline was represented by Roland "Jerry" Sutcliffe of Orlando's Zimmerman, Shuffield, Kaiser & Sutcliffe.  Sutcliffe said the pivotal factual issue was the placement of the VCR in the manager's office, which he said was done at the insistence of the bank.

"We designed the system to have the VCR in a secure closet, but they wanted it in the manager's office because it is he who changes the tapes and reviews the videos," Sutcliffe said.  "There was nothing illegal about having it there.  It didn't violate any standards to have it there."

Attorney Bryan W. Crews argued that under strict liability, Foreline remained liable for defects in the security system regardless of whether the system complied with minimum standards.

As for the argument that the bank management directed placement of the VCR, they noted the manufacturer of the VCR included with its instructions a warning that it should be located in a secure place.

"We plowed new legal ground, but it ended up well, said Crews. The jury checked all the product theories in our favor as well as negligent misrepresentation and negligent failure to warn."