Varone v. Publix Super Markets, Inc.
Two people were shot and killed inside a Publix grocery store on June 10, 2021, and the co-personal representatives of their estates sued Publix for negligence. The trial court granted summary judgment finding no legal duty to protect against the criminal attack because no prior similar criminal acts had occurred at the store. The Fourth DCA affirmed in an extended opinion reaffirming that Relyea v. State remains good law — a premises owner must have actual or constructive knowledge of prior, similar criminal acts before a duty to protect arises — and holding that Publix's nationwide active-shooter training and general statistics of grocery-store gun violence did not establish site-specific foreseeability sufficient to create a legal duty.
Key facts
- On June 10, 2021, a gunman shot and killed two people — S.V. and Litha G. Varone — inside the Publix at the Crossroads in Palm Beach County; the co-personal representatives of both estates sued Publix for negligence.
- Publix admitted it operated the store and conceded a general duty to protect invitees from reasonably foreseeable criminal acts; it moved for summary judgment arguing the shooting was unforeseeable as a matter of law because no prior similar criminal acts had occurred at the store, with incident reports from 2016 to the shooting showing only minimal, non-battery events.
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Holdings
- To impose a duty to protect an invitee from third-party criminal acts, a plaintiff must allege and prove that the landowner had actual or constructive knowledge of prior, similar criminal…
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Why it matters
This opinion reaffirms the prior-similar-acts rule from Relyea as the governing standard for duty in third-party criminal attack cases and explicitly reconciles the apparent tension with the Stevens/Allen/Hall trilogy… — full analysis with a trial
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