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Erin Andrews Trial (1 Viewer)

I

ILUVBEER99

Footballguy
So what are peoples thoughts on this case?  She's suing the Marriott for 75 million.

I think she has a case, some random guy requested a room next to her and they granted his request without notifying her at all.  Not sure on the legality of that but it seems negligent.  

Doubt she'll get awarded near 75 million but she should get something.

 
I rarely say this about lawsuits, but this seems kinda reasonable. Sucks for whatever insurance carrier is gonna pay it,  but the hotel basically enabled a stalker. They're lucky that he "only" took video and didn't break through the door and attack her. 

 
I didn't realize they granted his request to have the room next to hers.

Was this like.

Can I have room 386? Knowing that she was in 387 or wa this. ...yea hi, can I have the room next to Ms Andrews?

 
I'll gladly parade around nude for four minutes for a mere $5M. $75M is insane. Though I doubt she really expects to get that.

 
I haven't followed it at all, but heard he asked what room she was in. They told him and he asked for the room next door or across the hall. 

 
comfortably numb said:
I didn't realize they granted his request to have the room next to hers.

Was this like.

Can I have room 386? Knowing that she was in 387 or wa this. ...yea hi, can I have the room next to Ms Andrews?
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Good point, i'm not exactly sure on that.  From what i've heard so far they didn't address whether he asked for room referencing her name or just to be put in a certain room number.

 
Andrews’ attorney Randall Kinnard told jurors the employees of the Nashville hotel were negligent when Barrett called in 2008 and asked what room Andrews was staying in. (She was in the city to report on a Vanderbilt football game.) He was informed of the room number, enabling him to book the room next door and capture the video.
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PlasmaDogPlasma said:
Andrews’ attorney Randall Kinnard told jurors the employees of the Nashville hotel were negligent when Barrett called in 2008 and asked what room Andrews was staying in. (She was in the city to report on a Vanderbilt football game.) He was informed of the room number, enabling him to book the room next door and capture the video.
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Thanks for that info.  Mariott definitely seems negligent.  They should get punished badly, it could have ended up a lot worse if the guy was some murderer.

 
Can't imagine Marriott winning. They must just be hoping for a much lower reward than what Andrews was willing to settle for.

One poorly trained $14/hr desk clerk can cause a lot of damage.

 
A question, if Marriott did not own the hotel, why are they negligent? I agree that the owners of the hotel (A company called West End, I believe) are negligent, however Marriott only lent their name to the property, they don't actually own it.

 
I can't answer that, but I assume "lending" your name means you have some ownership. I'm sure the lawyers that are suing know the laws.  

 
I think she should get a few million, but $75mil?  Show me how her career has been hurt because of this.  If anything she has become more popular.

 
Cjw_55106 said:
I can't answer that, but I assume "lending" your name means you have some ownership. I'm sure the lawyers that are suing know the laws.  
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No, they probably are a franchise which pays a royalty to be a branded hotel.  Erin is definitely going after the deepest pockets.  Seems like a money grab to me.  I hope she is awarded something close to zero.  I am sure they will probably settle out of court to avoid the attorney fees. 

 
Why do people say that would award her zero dollars?  What am I missing?  

Guy checks into hotel room next to hers.

Hotel places Guy into the adjoining room.

Guy video tapes her nude.

Post video on the internet for all to see her nude.

Again, why are some people saying zero dollars?  

 
sbonomo said:
No, they probably are a franchise which pays a royalty to be a branded hotel.  Erin is definitely going after the deepest pockets.  Seems like a money grab to me.  I hope she is awarded something close to zero.  I am sure they will probably settle out of court to avoid the attorney fees. 
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Well, the case already started...so there's that. 

 
Huh. I'm not sure why, but I thought it was some coworker who had recorded it. Which would have made more sense getting a room next to her, but guess that wasn't the case.

 
Requesting a specific room is pretty standard practice for people who travel a lot, I don't see any negligence there. 

Providing a stranger with a celebrity's room number is highly questionable.

I don't know if it is worth $75,000,000 but it should at least get her a few Marriott Reward Points.

If the same employee gave him her room number AND booked his room next door then I can get on board with a big settlement.

 
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sbonomo said:
No, they probably are a franchise which pays a royalty to be a branded hotel.  Erin is definitely going after the deepest pockets.  Seems like a money grab to me.  I hope she is awarded something close to zero.  I am sure they will probably settle out of court to avoid the attorney fees. 
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So if your moms, sisters, daughters, whatevers room number was given out to some guy who secretly video taped them nude you'd be fine with it?

 
SHIZNITTTT said:
Why do people say that would award her zero dollars?  What am I missing?  

Guy checks into hotel room next to hers.

Hotel places Guy into the adjoining room.

Guy video tapes her nude.

Post video on the internet for all to see her nude.

Again, why are some people saying zero dollars?  
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Her damages come from the bolded part, and the Marriott didn't do those things. If she sues the guy who videotaped her and posted the video on the Internet, I think she should get a huge judgment.

But against the Marriott? It's generally not foreseeable that a hotel guest will take it upon himself to commit horrible, criminal acts; and in general we don't hold one person legally responsible for the unforeseeable, horrible, criminal acts of another. The hotel guest wasn't an employee or agent of the hotel. He was acting on his own.

 
Maurile Tremblay said:
Her damages come from the bolded part, and the Marriott didn't do those things. If she sues the guy who videotaped her and posted the video on the Internet, I think she should get a huge judgment.

But against the Marriott? It's generally not foreseeable that a hotel guest will take it upon himself to commit horrible, criminal acts; and in general we don't hold one person legally responsible for the unforeseeable, horrible, criminal acts of another. The hotel guest wasn't an employee or agent of the hotel. He was acting on his own.
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I don't know the legality of things, but was it ok for them to give out her hotel room number to a stranger without her consent?

 
chauncey said:
Requesting a specific room is pretty standard practice for people who travel a lot, I don't see any negligence there. 

Providing a stranger with a celebrity's room number is highly questionable.

I don't know if it is worth $75,000,000 but it should at least get her a few Marriott Reward Points.

If the same employee gave him her room number AND booked his room next door then I can get on board with a big settlement.
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Giving somebody else's room number out is quite a bit more than "highly questionable". :lmao:

 
ILUVBEER99 said:
I don't know the legality of things, but was it ok for them to give out her hotel room number to a stranger without her consent?
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Assume it's not okay. Assume it's negligent. That doesn't mean they should be liable for what happens after the intervening cause of the other guy's crimes. If I make a $20 accidental mistake that allows somebody else to unpredictably commit a $75 million intentional crime, that doesn't make me responsible for the $75 million crime.

 
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Maurile Tremblay said:
Assume it's not okay. Assume it's negligent. That doesn't mean they should be liable for the intervening cause of the other guy's crimes. If I make a $20 accidental mistake that allows somebody else to unpredictably commit a $75 million intentional crime, that doesn't make me responsible for the $75 million crime.
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Maybe her argument is that the employee made a $75 mil mistake that led to a gazillion dollar crime :shrug:

As others have stated, this could have turned out much, much worse.  Many stalkers would not have been satisfied to just record the video.  Had she been physically assaulted, raped, or worse, would that change your opinion on how much liability the hotel assumes? 

 
Prince Myshkin said:
Maybe her argument is that the employee made a $75 mil mistake that led to a gazillion dollar crime :shrug:

As others have stated, this could have turned out much, much worse.  Many stalkers would not have been satisfied to just record the video.  Had she been physically assaulted, raped, or worse, would that change your opinion on how much liability the hotel assumes? 
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I would say yes, it would definitely change my mind. I understand her feeling violated, but I consider physical assault to be far worse. Honestly, what they did was bad, you should never give our a guest's room number, but do you think that this guy wouldn't have got a room and just followed her in? He knew she was at the hotel and he obviously knew when she went in the room, which was made easier by getting the room across the hall. Couldn't he have sat in the lobby or sat in the parking lot and just strolled in behind her with luggage or a computer bag and acted like he was on the same floor. Pretty sure it wouldn't have been too hard since he was determined to do it. He also had to put something on the door that no one would notice or sat there and videotaped. I don't think that without giving him the room number that this wouldn't have happened.

Also, the damages are interesting as well. Not that it makes it acceptable, but as posted above, how much $$$ has she made as a spokesperson/personality because of the notoriety? There are lots of sideline reports with great looks, but as far as I can tell she is the only one I know of with national commercials and those all came after the videotape.

Again, no excuse for it, but I don't think this is anywhere close to a $75M case and again, there is no doubt she has profited from the videotape. That said, how much is the emotional damage? This would be an interesting case for Marriott's lawyers because you have a ton of footage of her on TV seeming to be in good spirits and could easily discuss her revenue/income before and after. I wonder what the judge/jury would do with that info.

 
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she deserves every penny. that said, i doubt she gets the $75 million. the hotel was negligent by all accounts. this is also likely forcing Marriott to change their privacy/security protocol for their guests across all their properties.

 
Maurile Tremblay said:
Assume it's not okay. Assume it's negligent. That doesn't mean they should be liable for what happens after the intervening cause of the other guy's crimes. If I make a $20 accidental mistake that allows somebody else to unpredictably commit a $75 million intentional crime, that doesn't make me responsible for the $75 million crime.
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I'm not so sure this was so unpredictable (if not this specific act, then something else nefarious). 

 
thecatch said:
I'm not so sure this was so unpredictable (if not this specific act, then something else nefarious). 
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I agree. I don't think it's obvious either way. I'm not really aware of the facts in any kind of detail, but in general, figuring out to what extent an intentional tort was foreseeable can be tricky.

I'm not taking the position that she should get close to zero. I was just answering the question of why some people would take that position. 

 
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thecatch said:
I'm not so sure this was so unpredictable (if not this specific act, then something else nefarious). 
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Sure, it's within the realm of possibility. But what's the probability? An element of the tort of negligence is whether the damages were reasonably foreseeable. Could he be a psycho-killer? Yes. Could he be someone willing to damage property to make a video? Yes. Could he be a fan just wanting a chance to meet her? Yes. Which is the most reasonably foreseeable?

 
Christo said:
Sure, it's within the realm of possibility. But what's the probability? An element of the tort of negligence is whether the damages were reasonably foreseeable. Could he be a psycho-killer? Yes. Could he be someone willing to damage property to make a video? Yes. Could he be a fan just wanting a chance to meet her? Yes. Which is the most reasonably foreseeable?
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A question for the fact finder who hopefully knows more than I do about the case, for sure. But it's not like he was asking where she'd be eating lunch or signing autographs or something - someone asking for info on and access to a hotel room seems materially more creepy/suspicious/etc to me in the abstract at least. 

 
saintfool said:
she deserves every penny. that said, i doubt she gets the $75 million. the hotel was negligent by all accounts. this is also likely forcing Marriott to change their privacy/security protocol for their guests across all their properties.
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this is where i'm at.  Hopefully the penalty is big enough to where they do everything in their power to make sure something like this doesn't happen again.  Certain things they can't control, but they served her up on a silver platter to the guy.

 
If I was a juror I would need to see the extent of the violation to make a determination on the amount of damages.

I do wonder what he said to the hotel employee.  There is a big difference between saying I'm a fan and would like a room next to her and I'm Ms. Andrews new production liaison assistant just assigned to her stay for this assignment and it might help if we were on the same floor, in fact, the closer the better, do you have a room on her floor?

As for foreseeability, a downside does not have to be the most foreseeable outcome, just one of many reasonably foreseeable outcomes.  I believe that industry standard is to not give out room numbers.  Employees trained in that standard may have given some thought for the reasons therefore, and that may have some bearing on reasonable foreseeability on some intrusion on privacy, if not this exact intrusion.

 
Ditkaless Wonders said:
I do wonder what he said to the hotel employee.  There is a big difference between saying I'm a fan and would like a room next to her and I'm Ms. Andrews new production liaison assistant just assigned to her stay for this assignment and it might help if we were on the same floor, in fact, the closer the better, do you have a room on her floor?
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This is an interesting point similar to something i went through.

Back in the mid 2000's, before my parents had cell phones, i needed to contact them while they were on vacation.  I called the hotel explaining i was their son and needed to talk to them.  They refused to give me any info and instead told me they would take my number and let my parents know i needed to get in touch. It gives the control to the guest as to whether they want the person calling to have information, the way it should be.

At the time it was a little frustrating but looking back it seems so obvious it's the right protocol.  Don't give the front desk people power they don't need and shouldn't have.

 
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