Merrill Crossings Associates v. McDonald

In Merrill Crossings Associates v. McDonald, 705 So. 2d 560 (Fla. 1997) a shopping center patron was shot by an unknown assailant in the center's parking lot. He sued the shopping center and its tenant, alleging they had provided inadequate security. For reasons we will turn to shortly, the supreme court held it was not error to exclude the nonparty assailant from the verdict form. In McDonald, the parking lot shooting case, the court held that public policy precludes a negligent defendant from reducing its liability by shifting it to another tortfeasor whose intentional criminal conduct was a foreseeable result of the defendant's negligence. 705 So. 2d at 562. Further, the court determined that the gravamen of that suit was not an action based on negligence, but one based on an intentional tort, to which section 768.81 does not apply.