McDonald’s Not Liable for Massacre Deaths and Injuries, Judge Declares

McDonald’s Corp. cannot be held liable for deaths and injuries caused by John Oliver Huberty’s shooting rampage 21 months ago at a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro, a San Diego County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday.

If upheld on appeal, the decision would block what attorneys have considered probably the best hope, among several legal claims, for survivors of the massacre to collect compensation stemming from the massacre, the worst single-day slaughter in U.S. history.

Judge Mack P. Lovett rejected the survivors’ contention that McDonald’s was negligent in failing to provide basic security measures in the San Ysidro restaurant, where Huberty killed 21 people and injured 19 in an hour-long shooting spree July 18, 1984. Huberty was killed by a police sharpshooter.

Lovett ruled it was unreasonable to expect a business to anticipate the wanton acts of a madman. “There’s just no duty here (to take precautions) as a matter of law,” Lovett said in granting McDonald’s a summary judgment of dismissal.

Though the decision affected only two suits filed on behalf of 26 victims and survivors of the massacre, attorneys for both sides said there was a strong likelihood that it eventually would be extended to the cases that are still pending in court for another 37 survivors.