IN THE STATE COURT OF FULTON COUNTY STATE OF GEORGIA R ABBASI, INC., Plaintiff, Civil Action File No.: versus REED ELSEVIER, INC. a/k/a REED EXHIBITIONS, a subsidiary of REED ELSEVIER, INC. d/b/a JCK TORONTO a/k/a JEWELERS CIRCULAR KEYSTONE, Defendant. COMPLAINT FOR DAMAGES COMES NOW R ABBASI, INC. (hereinafter Plaintiff Abbasi ) and files this Complaint for Damages, and respectfully shows this Court the following: PARTIES, JURISDICTION, AND VENUE 1. Defendant Reed Elsevier, Inc. a/k/a Reed Exhibitions, a subsidiary of Reed Elsevier, Inc. d/b/a JCK Toronto a/k/a Jewelers Circular Keystone (hereinafter Defendant Reed ), is a foreign corporation licensed to do business in the State of Georgia. Upon being served with a copy of this Complaint and Summons through its registered agent, C T Corporation System, 1201 Peachtree Street NE, Suite 1240, Atlanta, Georgia 30361, Defendant Reed will be subject to the jurisdiction and venue of this Court.
FACTUAL ALLEGATIONS 2. At all times material hereto, Defendant Reed was the marketer, host and organizer of a jewelry trade show exposition known as JCK Toronto that occurred on August 8, 2011 at The Toronto Metro Convention Center located at 255 Front Street West in the city of Toronto, Canada. 3. At all times material hereto, on August 8, 2011, Defendant Reed operated, maintained and controlled said premises located at The Toronto Metro Convention Center during the JCK Toronto jewelry trade show exposition. 4. At all times material hereto, Defendant Reed advertised and/or marketed the JCK Toronto trade show as exclusive to registered and qualified licensed business retailers and buyers. Defendant Reed explicitly provided that the public and guests were not allowed to register, attend and/or participate in the JCK Toronto trade show. 5. At all times material hereto, Plaintiff Abbasi was a registered, licensed exhibitor and business invitee of Defendant Reed at said jewelry convention. Plaintiff Abbasi is a wholesaler of fine jewelry operating a business in the State of Georgia. 6. Defendant Reed, at all times material to this Complaint, as exposition organizer maintaining, controlling and/or operating said premises of the JCK Toronto jewelry trade show
exposition where jewelry merchandise items valued in excess of millions of dollars would be displayed, had a duty to exercise extraordinary care in keeping said premises and approaches safe for their licensed, registered and qualified business invitees. 7. At all times material hereto, Plaintiff Abbasi, a registered participant, licensed exhibitor and business invitee, maintained an exhibitor booth at said premises displaying unique jewelry merchandise. 8. Plaintiff Abbasi and their agents and/or employees, in accordance with Defendant Reed s Exhibitor Manual prominently wore and/or displayed their Exhibitor Badges upon entering the building and at all times while operating and/or manning Plaintiff s exhibit booth. 9. On August 8, 20111, during the JCK Toronto jewelry convention trade show, as Plaintiff Abbasi and their agents and/or employees manned their exhibitor booth, suddenly and without warning unauthorized individuals, posing as authorized, registered and licensed vendors of the JCK Toronto trade show, stole several unique items of custom jewelry from the exhibitor booth operated by Plaintiff Abbasi to wit: one (1) 18 karat white gold diamond encrusted necklace, with 40 carat marquise cut emerald center pendant and one (1) 18 karat white gold diamond encrusted bangle. 10. The foregoing items were unique; therefore, Plaintiff is entitled to recover for the replacement costs of said items. The replacement costs for said items are as follows:
Item(s) Replacement Cost *18K white gold, diamond encrusted necklace $75,000.00 with 40K emerald pendant *18K white gold, diamond encrusted bangle $ 9,000.00 Total Replacement Costs: $84,000.00 11. At no time prior to the event was Plaintiff warned by Defendant that the JCK Toronto trade show event would be open to members of the general public or that members of the general public or guests would be allowed on the trade show floor. 12. At all times materials hereto, Defendant Reed advertised and marketed the JCK Toronto 2011 as a trade show, attended only by licensed businesses and registered company representatives and/or members of the trade and registered, qualified retailers and buyers. COUNT I NEGLIGENCE Plaintiff Abbasi realleges and incorporates by reference the allegations contained in Paragraphs 1 through 12 above though fully set forth herein and further allege: 13. Pursuant to O.C.G.A. 51-3-1, as the host and organizer of the JCK Toronto 2011 trade show exhibition that solicited and registered licensed jewelry business wholesalers and/or vendors, Defendant Reed had a duty to exercise extraordinary care in keeping the premises and approaches safe from theft and/or dangerous characters.
14. At all times material hereto, due to the nature of the trade show involving the display of millions of dollars of unique jewelry merchandise and the occurrence of criminal activity at previous Reed Exhibitions and JCK trade shows, Defendant Reed had reason to anticipate and/or foresee the criminal act which caused injury to Plaintiff Abbasi. 15. Defendant Reed breached their duty by failing to adequately register and/or screen exhibition vendors, licensed business representatives and members of the general public to identify, screen and/or keep out unlicensed and unauthorized individuals from fraudulently obtaining registration and/or admittance to the exclusive JCK Toronto trade show. 16. As a direct and proximate result of Defendant Reed s failure, through the acts of its employees and/or agents, to exercise a reasonable degree of care, Plaintiff was damaged and is entitled to recover damages for the replacement cost of the items stolen because the items were unique. COUNT II NEGLIGENT SECURITY Plaintiff Abbasi realleges and incorporates by reference the allegations contained in Paragraphs 1 through 16 above though fully set forth herein and further allege: 17. At all times material, Defendant Reed owed a duty to its invitees, including Plaintiff Abbasi, to exercise reasonable and ordinary care to keep and maintain its premises in a condition reasonably safe for the use of the registered, licensed and authorized invitees. In particular,
Defendant Reed had a duty to take such precautions as were reasonably necessary to protect its validly licensed and qualified business invitees and/or vendors, including Plaintiff Abbasi, from criminal attacks which were reasonably foreseeable. 18. Defendant Reed knew, or in the exercise of reasonable care should have known, that its premises, where it hosted the JCK Toronto jewelry trade show, where numerous registered vendors of wholesale fine jewelry, including Plaintiff Abbasi, would have exhibit booths displaying jewels and/or jewelry bearing a fair market value in excess of millions of dollars, presented itself as a foreseeable high crime area, and that there had been numerous similar criminal acts and attacks perpetrated on the vendors in said areas at previous JCK trade shows hosted by Defendant Reed, and that such criminal acts and attacks were reasonable likely to be perpetrated on business invitees of the Defendant at said event, unless Defendant took steps to provide proper security measures for such individuals. 19. Defendant Reed negligently failed to provide adequate security protection, security personnel or an outside security presence on the property of said premises to deter or detect unsolicited and unauthorized individuals from fraudulently obtaining entry into the exclusive JCK Toronto trade show convention. 20. Defendant Reed, including its employees and/or agents, were negligent and breached their duty of reasonable care by failing have competent personnel and security measures in place to adequately register, inspect, report, and detect the unauthorized presence of the individuals and to prevent said unauthorized individuals from gaining entrance and/or admittance to the JCK
Toronto trade show and the convention center premises where several unique and valuable items of jewelry were stolen from Plaintiff Abbasi s exhibit booth. 21. Defendant Reed, including its employees and/or agents, were negligent and breached their duty of reasonable care by failing to reasonably and effectively utilize and monitor existing security devices in place to detect, identify and prevent unauthorized individuals from gaining unauthorized entry into the JCK Toronto trade show, exposing authorized registered vendors, including Plaintiff Abbasi, to criminal activity. 22. Defendant Reed, including its employees and/or agents, were negligent and breached their duty of reasonable care by failing to warn, protect, patrol, deter and otherwise secure the safety of Plaintiff s exhibitor booth and merchandise, when the Defendant knew or should have known of the existence of the crime and danger to authorized exhibitors at the JCK Toronto trade show. 23. As a direct and proximate cause of Defendant Reed s carelessness and negligence to provide adequate security and failure to maintain a policy, procedure or system of adequately investigating, registering and identifying the JCK Toronto registrants prior to admitting individuals into the JCK Toronto trade show, and failure to provide warning to Plaintiff of the presence of members of the general public and guests at the JCK Toronto trade show, Plaintiff was a foreseeable target of criminal activity and as a result of the theft that occurred on said premises has suffered significant damages to business which will require costly replacement of the unique merchandise that was stolen.
COUNT III - NEGLIGENT MISREPRESENTATION Plaintiff Abbasi realleges and incorporates by reference the allegations contained in Paragraphs 1 through 23 above though fully set forth herein and further allege: 24. As the host and exhibition organizer of numerous jewelry trade shows involving in excess of millions of dollars of unique merchandise, Defendant Reed, through its employees and/or agents, was required to exercise a extraordinary degree of care in investigating, identifying, and registering qualified licensed business invitees, inspecting the premises, and providing adequate security based on prior criminal activity to thwart against foreseeable criminal activity at the present and any future JCK trade shows that may result in liability to an invitee. 25. At all times material hereto, Defendant Reed, advertised and marketed the JCK Toronto trade show as one that would not be open to the general public. 26. Defendant Reed, through its employees and/or agents, failed to identify, detect and distinguish registered vendors and participants from the general public, or was careless and/or provided negligent security at said premises that allowed criminals to abscond with Plaintiff s unique and extremely valuable jewels/merchandise. 27. As a direct and proximate result of Defendant Reed s misrepresentation, through the acts of its employees and/or agents, to exercise a reasonable degree of care and provide adequate
security to thwart against theft, Plaintiff Abbasi was incurred damages and is entitled to recover damages as set forth above. COUNT IV PUNITIVE DAMAGES Plaintiff Abbasi realleges and incorporates by reference the allegations contained in Paragraphs 1 through 27 above though fully set forth herein and further allege: 28. Defendant Reed showed conscious indifference to the consequences in allowing unlicensed and non-qualified individuals admittance and/or entry to the JCK Toronto trade show exhibition and allowing them to steal Plaintiff s merchandise. Therefore, as a consequence of the Defendant s actions, Plaintiff is entitled to recover punitive damages in an amount to be determined by the enlightened conscience of a jury. WHEREFORE, Plaintiff Abbasi prays as follows: a) That summons be issued and that Defendant Reed be served with process and be required to answer according to law; b) That Plaintiff have and recover judgment against the Defendant for the value of the unique jewelry merchandise that was stolen; d) That Plaintiff have and recover punitive damages and attorney s fees and reasonable expenses of this litigation; e) That this matter be heard by a jury; f) That all costs of this action be cast upon the Defendant; and, g) That Plaintiff be awarded such other relief as this Court deems just and proper.
This 27 th day of October, 2011. APOLINSKY & ASSOCIATES, LLC 150 East Ponce de Leon Avenue Suite 200 Decatur, Georgia 30030 (404) 377-9191 steve@aa-legal.com /s/ Stephen D. Apolinsky, Esq. STEPHEN D. APOLINKSY Georgia Bar No. 020915 Attorney for Plaintiff