CVS Pharmacy, LLC v. Carmichael

Overview

CVS Pharmacy, LLC v. Carmichael (Court of Appeals of Georgia, Nov. 1, 2021): A Georgia appellate court upheld a trial court’s $42,750,000 verdict against CVS Pharmacy in a premises liability case, holding that a customer shot by a robber in the pharmacy’s parking lot could be awarded damages because his injury was foreseeable, and a reasonable jury could have found that CVS was at fault. The court relied on the testimony of numerous employees and managers of the CVS where the customer was injured that the store was in a high-crime area and the poorly lit parking lot felt unsafe. The employees of the store repeatedly requested security guards from CVS’s corporate office and reported at least three violent crimes in the two years preceding the armed robbery. Because CVS failed to take adequate security measures, such as installing improved lighting or hiring a security guard, and because CVS was on notice that the area was susceptible to violent crime, the customer’s recovery was appropriate. Read the decision here.

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