Hotel Entitled to Summary Judgment in Apparent Suicide of Guest

The Court of Appeals affirmed in part and reversed in part the ruling of Fulton Superior Court Judge John Goger who granted in part and denied in part the hotel defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment in a case in which plaintiff’s decedent either died by suicide by jumping out the seventh floor window of his room or accidentally fell out of the window of his room. Plaintiff claimed the front desk clerk did not respond quickly enough when notified that the guest was threatening to die by suicide or, in the alternative, that the defendant was negligent in having windows that opened too wide. The Court of Appeals held that, if the decedent died by suicide, his action was an intervening cause of his death. The court found that if the decedent accidentally fell out the window, that he had equal knowledge of the alleged hazardous condition in that he opened the window and so would know how wide open it was before his fall. The Supreme Court denied the petition for certiorari.

Carol Leech, individually and as Administrator of the Estate of John Edward Leech v. La Quinta Inns, Inc., et al., 289 Ga. App. 812, 658 S.E.2d 637 (2008), cert. denied.

Counsel for Defendant hotel: Lynn Roberson