Personal Injury Law

Husband of Murdered North Carolina Worker Who Was Kidnapped From Parking Garage Sues City of Raleigh for Wrongful Death

The city of Raleigh and utility company Progress Energy are two of the defendants named in the North Carolina wrongful death lawsuit filed by the husband of Cynthia Moreland, the woman who was kidnapped from a parking garage in downtown Raleigh and later murdered. In his North Carolina wrongful death lawsuit, Walter Moreland is accusing the city of Raleigh and Progress Energy of negligence because of their failure to provide adequate security at the garage. Raleigh leases the garage to the utility company.

On August 22, 2006, Cynthia, who works for Progress Energy, was headed to work when she was kidnapped, raped, and murdered by Antonio Davon Chance. Her body was discovered 11 days later in Harnett County. Chance, who pleaded guilty to the criminal charges against him, is serving a lifetime prison sentence.

The lawsuit contends that Progress Energy either knew or should have known that it had employees that would park their vehicles in the garage even on the days that they came to work early. The complaint called the parking surveillance system ?inadequate" and accuses the city of Raleigh of negligence and of appearing to be more interested in generating parking revenue while making security a lesser priority.

Also named as defendants in the wrongful death lawsuit are Quantum Support Inc., McLaurin Parking Co., and Security Forces Inc. The plaintiffs contend that those in charge of monitoring security in the garage should have noticed on the surveillance cameras that Chance was in the garage and behaving suspiciously.

The cameras captured footage of Chance driving Cynthia?s motor vehicle out of the parking garage. Walter's complaint says that if security personnel had been ?reasonably attentive,? they would have noted that a ?scared, well-dressed woman? was with the driver.

Inadequate security on a premise can be grounds for a premises liability or wrongful death lawsuit if someone is killed or injured on the property, and the premise owner or manager could have done something to prevent the crime or accident from happening.

Progress Energy, city named in wrongful death suit, WRAL.com, August 21, 2008

Read the Complaint (PDF)

Cynthia Moreland Homicide Case, WRAL.com

Full post as published by North Carolina Injury Lawyer Blog on September 08, 2008 (boomark / email).