Target Corp. can conduct independent mental evaluations of a boy and a woman who were stabbed by an assailant in a downtown shopping center in 2022, a judge ruled Wednesday.
The attacks occurred Nov. 15, 2022, at the Target store within the FIGat7th shopping center shortly after 6:20 p.m. The victims were later identified as Brayden Medina Molina, then 9 years old, and South Korea resident Joo Hye Song, then 24. Both sued Target Corp., landlord FIGat7th LLC and other entities.
Both of the plaintiffs’ separately filed negligence/premises liability suits were consolidated and their attorneys allege the stabber, David Franklin, should not have been able to access a knife from a display area in the Target store. Target is the only remaining defendant after the plaintiffs settled with the other entities sued.
On Wednesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Anne Hwang ruled that Target can conduct psychological examinations of both plaintiffs given that they both claim to have suffered emotional distress from the knife attacks.
Target lawyers stated in their court papers that they were unaware that the plaintiffs and the other parties sued were in settlement talks and that they believed the co-defendants were scheduling the plaintiffs’ mental exams. The retailer’s legal team thus believed they were entitled to re-open discovery for the psychological evaluations over the objections of the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
“Although Target could have acted more diligently, Target represents that it has experts who can complete the medical examinations and make themselves available for deposition in time for trial,” wrote Hwang, who said everything must be completed by the scheduled Oct. 31 trial date.
Target attorneys maintain the attacks were unforeseeable and that as events unfolded that evening they initially appeared to involve a petty theft.