Lack of Security Results in Deaths at Palm Beach County Nightclub

Gunfire at a Riviera Beach nightclub late Sunday evening, due to an apparent lack of proper security, resulted in the wrongful deaths of two club patrons. The Caribbean Club in Palm Beach County was the location of the early morning incident in which an 18 year old and a 24 year old died.

Unfortunately, these types of incidents occur frequently at clubs and bars that negligently disregard their responsibility to provide proper security. In our practice we have seen too many premises liability cases in which club owners, looking to make a quick buck, disregard the safety of their paying patrons by failing to hire enough or properly qualified security guards.

Florida Law provides recourse to such injured customers, and their surviving family members, by requiring businesses to take reasonable steps to protect their customers from known or likely dangers. These dangers include attacks by other patrons and from people who are looking to rob customers as they enter or leave the businesses or use ATMs. In many situations, a review of the criminal history of a particular location will reveal that the business disregarded past criminal attacks and subjected their customers to a foreseeable criminal attack.

We can only hope that those businesses who benefit from their customers, will use some of their profits to take the necessary steps to deter these types of tragedies in the future.