Marcella A. Connolly, Appellant, v. Nicollet Hotel et al., Defendants, Nicollet Hotel and Alice Shmikler, as trustee of Joseph Shmikler et al., d.b.a. The Nicollet Hotel, Respondents.

Should courts be willing to apply res ipsa loquitur principles to defendants who acquiesce to conditions which made the wrongful injury likely?

Defendant hosted an incredibly rowdy convention, in which gunfire in the lobby, destruction of hotel fixtures, and defenestrations were common. However, defendant did not make any attempts to reign in the behavior of its guests: no complaints were made to the organization running the convention, nor to the police. Plaintiff was walking on the sidewalk near defendant’s hotel while the convention was ongoing. After looking upward to ascertain the source of an explosion, plaintiff was struck in the left eye by a mud-like substance. She lost sight in her left eye due to the impact. The only building from which the material could have fallen was defendant’s hotel.