Morrison Mahoney Partner Robert Mack and Associate Denise M. Tremblay recently prevailed on a Motion for Summary Judgment in the Falmouth District Court.
Our client, a real estate trust, was the owner of a parcel of land that had a large horse stable and riding paddock in East Falmouth. The stable and riding paddock was leased to a corporation that rented horse stalls and offered riding lessons to the public. The plaintiff filed suit against the real estate trust, an individual who was a co-trustee, and her alleged attacker after she was injured in an altercation inside the stable. The corporation that leased the premises and the alleged attacker did not have liability insurance. The plaintiff alleged that the individual who attacked her was an employee of the trust. The plaintiff incurred $20,000 + in medical bills.
We denied that the trust had any employees and during discovery the alleged attacker admitted that she was not an employee of the trust. In addition, the plaintiff could offer no evidence that her attacker was an employee of the trust. Accordingly, we argued that the real estate trust could not be held liable because it was not responsible for the actions of the attacker, it had no control over the leased stable at the time of the altercation, and that the assault and battery was not reasonably foreseeable by either the trust or the trustee.
