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October 2017

Orange County Office Obtains Summary Judgment for Nationally Recognized Gym Client

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani senior counsel Doug Van Blarcom along with partner Ken Perri obtained summary judgment on behalf of the firm's client, a nationally recognized, prominent gym.  The plaintiff alleged claims of significant personal injury sustained when he was assaulted during a pick-up basketball game at the gym's facility in Los Angeles.

The plaintiff, a gym member, alleged among other things that the gym failed to properly staff/monitor the basketball game and to provide adequate security to prevent foreseeable criminal acts despite its knowledge of prior similar assaults occurring during basketball games. The plaintiff submitted a lengthy declaration by a recognized security expert in support of his claim that the gym was liable and/or that questions of fact existed as to the issue of causation. 

In Gordon & Rees's motion for summary judgment, the firm's attorneys strategically chose to not address the issue of duty but instead argued that the assault upon the plaintiff was a spur of the moment, unforeseeable criminal act which the gym did not cause (i.e. no causation).  Gordon & Rees objected to the basis for, and opinions of, the plaintiff’s security expert.  The court sustained many of these objections and issued a tentative ruling that the assault upon the plaintiff was indeed a spontaneous criminal act which was not caused by any action or inaction of the gym.  Following a very long, heated and contentious oral argument, the court sustained its tentative ruling and granted the client’s summary judgment motion.  

Kenneth S. Perri
Douglas J. Van Blarcom



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