Outlet mall owners ask Texas Supreme Court to axe mass shooting lawsuit

The Texas Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on whether Simon Property Group, the nation's largest mall owner, can be sued over the 2023 Allen Premium Outlets shooting that killed eight and injured seven. Victims' families argue the company was negligent for staffing only one unarmed guard across the 611,000-square-foot property, despite prior mass shootings at other Simon-owned sites.

Simon's attorney argued Texas law imposes no general duty on property owners to prevent third-party criminal acts, and that requiring visible security everywhere would carry heavy societal costs. Justice Debra Lehrmann pushed back, noting mass shootings are a distinctly American problem and questioning whether some added security measures are really as unreasonable as the company suggests.

Both the trial court and a state appeals court already rejected Simon's bid to dismiss the case, though neither explained its reasoning. The shooter, who wore a patch referencing ‘Right Wing Death Squad,’ had expressed white supremacist views, according to authorities.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.