The Haggard Law Firm’s Michael Haggard and Adam Finkel secured an $8.6 Million settlement in a negligent security wrongful death case in the Orlando area.
On November 2022, 33 year-old Phillip McCrimmon Martin was staying with a friend at the Vista Haven Apartments in Sanford, Florida. Watching over the apartment while the resident was out on a short trip, Phillip and his friend largely kept to themselves. On November 22nd, Phillip was shot in the parking lot of the complex. As he struggled up the stairs towards the apartment, the shooter continued firing at him. Phillip died in the apartment.
A single mother lived across the hall from the apartment where Phillip was staying, and her children’s father, Kadeem Fisher, was arrested for Phillip’s murder. While the reason for the shooting was not immediately known, the shooter had mental health issues. It is believed Fisher either shot Phillip because he was flirtatious with his children’s mother or because Phillip was found sitting outside their apartments on the stairs and did not want to move. Fisher has since been convicted in criminal court for killing Phillip.
While Fisher awaited trial in criminal court, Haggard and Finkel filed suit against the property owners and managers of the complex for their negligence. At the time of the shooting, the Vista Haven Apartments were managed by Highmark Residential. While the complex once employed the use of private security patrols, Highmark previously terminated the security guard contract. Despite stating the guards would be replaced with a third-party company charged with actively monitoring surveillance cameras in real time that was never done. Further, the front security gates were broken, as were many of the surveillance cameras.
With all that said, as Fisher was given access to the complex by the mother of his children, this was not a typical negligent security case addressing a criminal trespasser. Here, a resident gave the shooter permission to enter to complex. The Haggard Law Firm’s investigation revealed that the shooter stayed in the complex for the better part of 1 year, but did so without letting management know. Had he told management, there was no way he would have been allowed to reside at the complex given his violent criminal history, including an arrest for attempted murder. Haggard and Finkel, therefore, focused their litigation on traditional negligent security issues, as well as how Highmark Residential failed to reasonably monitor the property for persons improperly living on the property on the lease, like the shooter.
The Haggard Law Firm was able to deftly utilize depositions in other cases in order to secure sworn testimony supporting their arguments. In one case, they deposed a former property manager for the complex who was not working for a different management company, and Haggard and Finkel secured testimony that she firmly believed Vista Haven Apartments needed security personnel, and that it would be unreasonable for a management company to cancel a security contract. In another case, Finkel and Haggard deposed another property manager presently working at a different Highmark-managed apartment complex, and was able to secure testimony regarding basic, necessary measures that all Highmark properties should have in place in order to monitor if persons are illegally living on the property. These measures were, of course, not implemented at Vista Haven. As Highmark’s own property manager acknowledged that all properties should have those measures in place, it became exceedingly difficult for Highmark to argue that they had reasonable measures in place, when they didn’t even have their own necessary policies effectively in place.
Ultimately, with so many witnesses gathered by The Haggard Law Firm throughout their investigation, an $8,600,000.00 settlement was secured for the surviving mother and father of Phillip McCrimmon Martin.
