NO ERROR IN GRANTING SUMMARY JUDGMENT FOR DEFENDANT BASED ON AN INTERVENING CAUSE, INDEPENDENT OF ANY NEGLIGENCE ON THE PART OF THE DEFENDANT

Coleman v. Via Entertainment, LLC, 50 Fla. L. Weekly D2045 (Fla. 5th DCA Sept. 12, 2025):

The defendant hosted a series of events at its entertainment center. At one such event, the attending plaintiff parked in a lot in front of the defendant’s venue.

The defendant shut the event down early. It ordered all attendees to exit the building. As the plaintiff headed toward his car after exiting, a truck hit him.

The circumstances of the collision were rather unusual. The driver of the truck had put the truck in park while waiting in a long line to leave the parking lot. He then opened the driver’s side door, stood up, leaned out of the truck, and while he was hanging out of the vehicle, the front seat passenger decided to put the truck in drive and hit the gas pedal.

In addition to hitting the plaintiff, the truck ran over and killed another pedestrian. The front seat passenger later pled guilty to vehicular homicide.

The plaintiff sued the defendant venue alleging it breached its duty to exercise reasonable care in the planning and execution of the event. Specifically, the plaintiff claimed that the defendant failed to create a traffic plan and failed to direct traffic after ejecting all the attendees.

The defendant moved for summary judgment, contending that its actions or omissions were not the direct or proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries.

The court noted that three other district courts have circumscribed the extent to which a defendant can reasonably foresee a third party’s negligent operation of a vehicle. Here, the defendant could not have reasonably foreseen that a front seat passenger would put a parked vehicle into drive and hit the gas pedal while the driver was hanging out of the vehicle, thereby causing the vehicle to strike the pedestrians. To the extent that a defendant should foresee a third party’s negligent operation of a vehicle, it is generally the negligent operation by the driver, NOT a passenger.

Ultimately, the plaintiff’s injuries resulted from a freakish improbable chain of events that the defendant could not have foreseen, and the court affirmed the entry of summary judgment for the defendant.