Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 26, 1990 TAG: 9004260512
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Frances Burgess, who was mugged outside the Food Lion on Shenandoah Avenue Northwest last year, had sought to collect $100,000 in damages from the business.
In a lawsuit filed in Roanoke Circuit Court, Burgess claimed that store executives were aware of a pattern of crime at the store and failed to take precautions that could have prevented the attack on her.
Her attorney, Frank Rogers of Roanoke, argued that the store's location in a high-crime area "attracts and provides a climate for assaultive types of crimes."
But Judge Roy Willett disagreed, granting a motion by Food Lion to dismiss the suit before it went to trial.
Willett based his decision on a Supreme Court ruling that held the owners of a motel were not responsible for the assault of a customer in its parking lot.
Jim Guynn, a Roanoke lawyer who represented Food Lion, argued that the allegations in the lawsuit would place unfair restrictions on businesses that operate in certain parts of town.
Willett agreed that had the case gone to trial, it would "raise the problem of keeping people from doing business anywhere in a high crime area" - or any other area.
"I dare say there's not a grocery store in the valley that hasn't had an assault," he said.
Burgess, of Salem, was knocked to the ground by an assailant who grabbed her purse outside the store on the night of Jan. 31, 1989.
In her suit, Burgess claimed that the store was a common site of assaults, disorders, thefts and other "frequent instances of criminal activity."
In papers filed in court, Food Lion executives have said that a security officer worked inside the building, but seldom patrolled the parking lot area.
by CNB