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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

City Not Liable for|New Year’s Eve Shooting

(CN) - A woman who was accidentally shot by a New Year's Eve partygoer can't collect damages from the city of Delray Beach, a Florida appeals court ruled.

Heather Leitch rang in 2006 at a "First Night" celebration in downtown Delray Beach. She was having a glass of champagne after midnight when she was hit by a stray bullet.

Leitch sued for negligence, but the trial court ruled that the city did not have a duty to warn Leitch about the dangers of stray bullets during the New Year's celebration.

In a per-curiam ruling, the judges of the West Palm Beach-based Fourth District Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling for the city.

"Because ... the evidence failed as a matter of law to establish that a stray bullet at First Night Delray Beach 2006 was reasonably foreseeable, the trial court did not err in finding that Delray Beach did not owe a duty to warn Leitch of this possibility," they ruled.

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