Negligent Security

We represented the parents of a seventeen year old boy who was shot and killed during an altercation inside an after-hours BYOB dance club in Odessa, Texas. Prior to the time our clients‚ his son was shot, there had been a number of incidents of violent criminal conduct in the area immediately surrounding the club in the several years prior to this incident. The club had a stated policy of patting people down and wanding them with a hand held metal detector prior to allowing patrons to enter the club. Despite this policy, on the day in question the operators of the club allowed someone to take a gun inside the club that was used to kill our clients‚ his son. The operators of the club claimed, among other things, that they were not responsible for the death because the shooter was responsible for intentionally firing the gun and because the son should not have been at the club in the first place. After filing suit on behalf of our clients, about a month before the scheduled trial date we obtained a settlement on behalf of our clients in which the insurance company for the operators of the club paid policy limits to settle the case.