Recently, Pennington Shareholder, Cody Short, and Associate, Geoffrey Place, appeared before the Florida First District Court of Appeal to present oral argument on a recent case involving alleged negligent security at a Tallahassee business. In the case at issue, an employee of the business was kidnapped during her lunch break from the parking lot by a man who initially intended to kidnap his former partner, but kidnapped the employee when he could not locate his initial target. The man ultimately sexually assaulted the employee, and, tragically murdered her, leaving her in a car to be found by the authorities. The Employee’s estate brought suit against the business and the property manager alleging negligent security on the property. At the lower court, the Pennington Team successfully argued that the defendant had no notice of any safety concern at the property, and summary judgment was awarded in the defendants’ favor. After an appeal was filed, Pennington’s Appellate team, again, successfully argued that the defendant had no notice of any safety concern regarding the man and, thus, had no duty to protect against this unforeseeable action of a third party. Following oral argument, the First District Court of Appeal issued a Per Curiam Affirmance of the lower court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of the defendants. The Pennington Team is proud to have obtained another favorable decision for one of its clients.

On April 26, 2024 Pennington Associate, Rachel Givens, attended Chamber of Commerce’s Access Tallahassee Summit. It was a wonderful event, directed at Tallahassee young professionals, and we were pleased to have Rachel attend as Pennington’s Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce Liaison.