Last week, the Supreme Court of Texas heard National Trial Law’s case on whether a mall owner and operator, Simon Property Group, owed shoppers a duty to keep them safe while visiting their mall. On September 16, the Supreme Court of Texas heard oral argument in In re Simon Property Group, No. 26-0023. Our clients sued Simon because on May 6, 2023, a shooter attacked visitors of Allen Premium Outlets north of Dallas. The gunman killed eight people and wounded seven before police killed him. The Dallas district court and the Fifth Court of Appeals both declined to dismiss our client’s claims over the objection of Simon. Then, Simon then asked the Supreme Court of Texas to intervene.
Simon argued that they should have no duty to protect their visitors in this circumstance. According to KERA News, the plaintiffs point to more than 3,000 police calls to the mall over three years, including a call six days before the shooting reporting an alleged shooting there. These calls put Simon on notice that their customers are at risk and then the question becomes, what did Simon do in response?
If the Supreme Court holds that Simon has no duty to protect its customers and visitors, the case against the largest mall owner in America ends no matter what the evidence about security would have shown. If you or a family member was shot at a business, the records that matter are the ones the business and the police generated: incident reports, security staffing schedules, post orders, camera footage, and the call history for that address. Our page on mass shooting cases explains how these claims are built.