A woman has tentatively settled her lawsuit against a Baldwin Hills restaurant supply store, in which she alleged poor security in 2020 allowed robbers to take her purse from her car, then drag and injure her while driving away in their own vehicle as she tried to retrieve the handbag.
An attorney for plaintiff Melissa Kim filed court papers on Monday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Steven A. Ellis notifying him of a "conditional" settlement with the expectation a request for dismissal will be filed by Dec. 21. No terms were divulged.
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In their court papers, Restaurant Depot attorneys denied any liability on the company's part and called the lawsuit "frivolous" and not based on good faith.
"Plaintiff can produce no admissible evidence that establish Restaurant Depot owed a duty to prevent the subject incident as the third-party criminal conduct was unforeseeable and plaintiff's action of voluntarily attempting to retrieve her purse from a moving vehicle was unforeseeable," the Restaurant Depot lawyers further maintained in their court papers.
Kim brought the suit in December 2021, alleging negligence and premises liability. She maintained she was in the parking lot of the store in the 5400 block of West Jefferson Boulevard on Aug. 6, 2020, and was walking from her car to the front entrance when she became aware that several individuals had smashed the window to her vehicle, then stole her purse, the suit states.
She tried to retrieve the handbag and was dragged by the robbers as they left in their vehicle, according to the suit.
Kim believed that other assaults, batteries and robberies had occurred in the same parking lot and that there was inadequate security the day she was victimized, the suit stated.
The plaintiff suffered "great mental, physical and nervous pain" and believes she will have some permanent disability, according to the suit.
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