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Expensive fallout from jury's award

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By TOM JACKSON tjackson@tampatrib.com Tom Jackson

tjackson@tampatrib.com

Published: June 28, 2009

Suddenly, it's a very good time to be in the private security business.

Even as owners of the Land O' Lakes McDonald's and the adjacent shopping plaza (and, more to the point, their liability insurers) mull their chances on appeal, they and similar commercial enterprises across the Bay area must now consider the ramifications of an eye-popping $1.5 million judgment that, ostensibly, hung by a single dubious hinge:

Management hadn't put a rent-a-cop on the premises.

Attorneys convinced a Dade City jury that the lack of a security guard was a proximate cause of the death of Anthony Makowski, the hulking 21-year-old son of Cathy and Wayne Makowski. Interestingly, jurors split the liability into thirds, holding the owners of the restaurant, the shopping center and Makowski equally responsible.

Curiously missing from the verdict form - score another victory for Miami-based lawyer Curt Obront - was then-25-year-old Martin Robles-Taylor, who dispatched Makowski with a prolonged chokehold after a parking lot confrontation with the larger, younger man. Having reviewed the video evidence and interviewed witnesses, authorities declined to prosecute Robles-Taylor; Obront plainly didn't want him sharing liability either.

Pleas and sympathy

In all likelihood, the Makowskis won this one the moment Circuit Judge Susan Gardner decided there was enough in their complaint to put it in front of a jury. That was pretty much all the opening Obront needed to begin throwing stuff against the wall to obfuscate the fact that this was, ultimately, merely a parking lot brawl, induced by a testosterone-alcohol cocktail, that turned from bad to worse.

In the small hours of the morning, the parking lot of the McDonald's, with its 24-hour drive-through, was a hotbed for trouble, said the plaintiffs' attorneys, "a bar on wheels." The defendants, Brickman Management Co. and B&B Cash Grocery Stores Inc., could have, should have, seen this coming, they said, and a sympathetic jury agreed.

Complicated business

Although jurors failed to award the kind of money ($5 million a parent) Obront recommended, they nonetheless declined to send the Makowskis home empty-handed. But their finding, unless/until vacated on appeal, will play into arguments made in similar future lawsuits hereabouts in the future.

In this atmosphere of uncertainty, nervous overnight shopkeepers almost certainly will start putting rented uniforms on display, as a deterrent, yes, but more as a sop to the plaintiffs' bar - not to mention suit-shy liability insurers who, reasonably now, may make policy-writing contingent upon the employment of security guards.

For the time being, know this: The cost of doing business in Pasco County just went up, and more than just a little bit.

Keyword: The Jax Files, for Tom Jackson's bonus insights.

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