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Posted On: March 19, 2010

Georgia false imprisonment laws hold businesses accountable

Georgia consumers wrongfully detained or arrested by businesses and corporations have begun to fight back thanks to recent changes in the law.

In the latest false imprisonment case, a customer of the Atlanta W Hotel claims that multiple staff members tackled and detained him for criticizing a manager. The customer is seeking $250,000 in damages. The Atlanta Journal Constitution has the story.

Filing a lawsuit against a business or corporation for false imprisonment used to be a difficult endeavor. However, a recent appeals court decision, Ferrell v. Mikula, has clarified the law and made it easier for customers to hold businesses accountable.

Generally, unless there is some recognized justification, a business can be liable for false imprisonment if the actions of an employee cause a customer to be falsely arrested.

In many cases, the issue of false imprisonment arises when a customer is detained and arrested for shoplifting. A shopkeeper in such a case is generally liable unless he can show that a reasonable person would have believed that the customer was shoplifting. A shopkeeper must also show that the manner and length of the detention were reasonable.

The Atlanta W Hotel case is a good example of false imprisonment if the customer’s claims prove to be true. The complaint alleges that the customer, Michael Pelkey, criticized the hotel manager after the manager made derogatory statements about America in the hotel bar. The bartender then told Pelkey to leave and Pelkey complied. However, while walking back to his room, Pelkey claims that he was tackled, handcuffed and detained by five to six staff members. The staff members then allegedly dragged Pelkey outside into the parking lot. Staff members called the police an hour later, and when police arrived, they told officers that Pelkey was intoxicated and was trying to start fights. Pelkey was then arrested.

If successful, Mr. Pelkey, or a similar plaintiff, may be able to recover damages for emotional distress, physical harm and loss of reputation. In cases where the customer is assaulted or if the business acts with malice, the injured customer may also seek punitive damages. Punitive damages are designed to punish the offending business and to deter it from falsely imprisoning customers in the future. In some cases, these damages can be significant.

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Posted On: March 17, 2010

Atlanta lawyer Page Pate discusses recent opinions from the Supreme Court of Georgia

The Georgia Supreme Court upheld two controversial laws on Monday which may signal a change in the direction of the Court. The Court first ruled that gross negligence in medical malpractice suits against ER doctors is not an unconstitutional standard. It also ruled that criminal defendants convicted of non-sex crimes can be forced to register as sex offenders.

Legal analyst and Atlanta trial lawyer Page Pate shared his analysis of both opinions and what they mean for the future of the Court.

The first case involved a piece of tort reform legislation which requires a patient injured by an emergency room doctor to show that the doctor committed gross negligence. Gross negligence is defined as failing to exercise the slightest degree of care. State legislators claim to have instituted the heightened standard in an effort to make malpractice insurance more affordable. The Court’s 4-3 majority reasoned that such a rationale was a legitimate reason.

Pate explained that under the former Court there most likely would have been a different result: “I think Justice Sears was always concerned about leveling the playing field for litigants, especially plaintiffs who had been injured by medical malpractice actions.” According to Pate, the Court may have changed course with addition of Justice Nahmias: “This opinion now gives [doctors] greater protection, at least in the emergency room context, than prior Georgia cases ever did.”

The second controversial ruling upheld a state law which requires individuals convicted of falsely imprisoning or kidnapping a minor to register as a sex offender. A criminal defendant convicted of false imprisonment challenged the law arguing that it was cruel and unusual punishment. The Court ruled that registration is merely a “regulatory” provision and therefore not punishment.

Pate told WABE listeners that he believes the Court got it wrong. Pate explained that, “not only do you have to notify the local sheriff of where you live and what you’re doing, but it also creates restrictions: where you can live, where you can work, with whom you can associate. So it is very much a type of punishment that is in addition to whatever sentence a person may receive.” The law has been widely criticized by many including some Georgia sheriffs who say that the law takes resources away from monitoring offenders who actually committed sex crimes.

Pate also told WABE listeners that in the past the Court has been “focused on precedent and trying to reach the right result in many cases. . . a court that really seems to not hesitate if they need to strike down a piece of legislation that is unconstitutional or was not enacted in a way which benefits all Georgians.” As for the current Court, Pate believes that there has been a marked change: “I’m not sure if that’s because of political pressures that the judges may have faced or the addition of this newest justice, Justice Nahmias. But I do think that the kind of liberal-conservative labels that people use to talk about United States Supreme Court Justices may now start to apply with our state Supreme Court justices.” Pate went on to say that, “we may start to get to the point where we can define the court one way or the other or at least in voting blocks one way or the other.”

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Posted In: Personal Injury , Professional Malpractice

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Posted On: March 16, 2010

Reckless driving causes deaths across Georgia

Approximately 1,500 people die on Georgia’s roadways every year. Of those, around 40% involved alcohol and 30% involved speeding. In one recent reckless driving tragedy, a 21-year-old Marine was killed after a wrong-way driver crashed into his vehicle on I-20 in Cobb County. The Atlanta Journal Constitution covered the incident.

In the I-20 Cobb County case, the victim, Lance Cpl. Gregory M. Suedmeyer, had just returned home from Iraq at the time of the wreck. The wrong-way driver, Brue Quayle, had traveled the wrong way on I-20 for more than a mile before striking Suedmeyer’s vehicle head-on. Suedmeyer’s wife was also seriously hurt.

Such stories of reckless driving are unfortunately common across Georgia and the country. In fact, reckless driving has been designated the number one killer for young adults in America. In the vast majority of these cases, the driver at fault was engaged in some preventable conduct such as drinking alcohol, speeding, texting, not paying attention to the road or some other form of reckless driving.

While a car wreck can steal lives and a sense of normalcy, it can also be very expensive. Medical bills, counseling, lost wages and physical and emotional suffering can often cripple a family’s financial well-being. Georgia law allows for the recovery of these losses if the injured party can show that the other driver breached a duty, such as violating a traffic law, and that the violation caused the injuries. In the I-20 Cobb County case, the wrong-way driver is most likely liable for these damages, since he clearly violated a traffic law which led to the injuries.

In the tragic case of a death, the law allows a victim’s family to recover for wrongful death. Wrongful death damages consist of the full value of the victim’s life. This includes an economic element, which is the amount of money the victim would have earned over the span of his or her life, in addition to an intangible element.

A victim or a victim’s family may also seek punitive damages when the driver at fault commits an egregious act such as drinking and driving, or as the case above details, driving the wrong way on a major interstate. Punitive damages are meant to punish the offender for acting with such willful disregard for human life.

While money can never replace what a reckless driver has taken, it can help a family begin the process of recovery by paying for quality medical care, counseling and lost paychecks.

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Posted In: Metro Atlanta , Personal Injury , Truck/Auto Accidents

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Contributors

Page Pate
Page Pate is an accomplished trial lawyer and founding partner of Pate & Brody. Page has been recognized by both Georgia Trend Magazine and Georgia Super Lawyers as one of the state’s elite trial lawyers…

Bernard Brody
Bernard Brody is an experienced trial and appellate lawyer and founding partner of Pate & Brody. Bernard has won trials and successfully resolved difficult criminal and civil cases in courts across Georgia…

Jess Johnson
Jess Johnson graduated first in his class from the University of Georgia in 2006, where he attained degrees in political science and sociology...

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