Clay County Circuit Court Grants FSM Client Summary Judgment in Wrongful Death Suit
02/17/2023Presiding Judge David Paul Chamberlain of the 7th Judicial Circuit Court, Clay County, Missouri, granted summary judgment in favor of firm client, Metro Public Safety & Investigations, LLC, in a series of consolidated wrongful death suits. The conslidated cases related to a mass shooting that occurred at a bar in Kansas City, Kansas. In July of 2021, six plaintiffs filed suit against Metro alleging that Metro had a contractual duty to provide security services at the Tequila KC bar on the evening of October 5, 2019, until the bar closed after last call on the following morning of October 6, 2019. On that evening two assailants entered the Tequila KC bar and opened fire on its patrons, killing five people. Plaintiffs filed this wrongful death action on behalf of those decedents.
In granting Metro summary judgment, Judge Chamberlain ordered that plaintiffs’ cause of action failed under both Kansas and Missouri law because there was no binding contract between Metro and Tequila KC and because Tequila KC did not cause and could not have foreseen the violent acts of the assailants. Firm partners John G. Schultz, Janette C. Gaddie, and firm associate Chad L. Whitney represented Metro and filed the summary judgment on its behalf.