Appellate Court Drops Victim Suit Against Florida Nightclub Shooter’s Employer

A Florida appellate court upheld a lower court’s ruling that a security firm employing the gunman responsible for a gay nightclub shooting can’t be held liable for failing to investigate complaints against the shooter, giving him firearm training and allowing him to possess a gun license.

A three-judge panel of the Fourth District Court of Appeal on April 2 upheld a lower court’s decision dismissing the lawsuit brought against G4S by survivors of the Pulse nightclub shooting and family members of the 49 people who were killed at the gay nightclub in Orlando in 2016.

Survivors and family members had argued that G4S was negligent in hiring Omar Mateen as a security guard despite concerns that had been raised about him at a previous job, trained him to become an expert marksman and ignored complaints from fellow security guards about his threatening behavior at work.

In its decision, the appellate court said the survivors and family members in their argument did not offer a limit to the legal duty a company like G4S should be responsible for, and “failing to provide any sort of boundary for the employer would have severe public policy implications.”

Topics Lawsuits Florida Commercial Lines Business Insurance