Store Owner Sued by Customer Who Was Abducted

In Clohesy v. Food Circus Supermarkets, Inc., 149 N.J. 496, 502, 694 A.2d 1017 (1997), for instance, the Supreme Court reversed summary judgment for a store-owner sued by executrix of customer who was abducted from the store's parking lot. Factors the court considered in determining that a jury issue on duty of care existed were: the location of the store next to a liquor store and gas station, the lack of warnings and security in the parking lot, the lack of visibility of the parking lot from the store, sixty reported incidents on or near the store over a two-and-one-half-year period, (of these sixty reported incidents only four were assaults as compared to thirty shopliftings), the increase of crime on the store's property from four incidents in 1989 to thirteen in 1991, and evidence from a security expert. Id. at 503-04, 694 A.2d 1017.