CHARLES HAMILTON V DAVID ROY COWEN
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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS
CHARLES HAMILTON,
UNPUBLISHED
July 5, 1996
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v
No. 173446
LC No. 93-000073-NO
DAVID ROY COWEN, GOBIND SINGH, and
EMBASSY HOTEL, INC.,
Defendants-Appellees,
and
BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF MICHIGAN,
Intervenor.
Before: Fitzgerald, P.J., and Sawyer and Young, JJ.
MEMORANDUM.
Plaintiff appeals from an order of the circuit court granting summary disposition to defendants on
plaintiff’s claim for negligent hiring. We affirm.
Plaintiff was injured when he was assaulted and robbed by defendant Cowen. Cowen was
employed as a maintenance man at defendant Embassy Hotel, which was owned by defendant Singh.
Plaintiff was a guest at the hotel at the time of the robbery. Plaintiff maintains that defendants hotel and
Singh were negligent in hiring and retaining Cowen, as well as in failing to adequately investigate Cowen
before hiring him. The trial court granted summary disposition in favor of defendants hotel and Singh,
concluding that there was no evidence that defendants hotel and Singh knew, or should have known, of
Cowen’s violent propensitites.
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The trial court filed a detailed, written opinion to which there is little need to elaborate upon.
Rather, we merely emphasize that portion of the trial court’s opinion which notes that Cowen had no
criminal record, as reflected in the Presentence Investigation Report in Cowen’s criminal case. Simply
put, there is no evidence presented which indicates that Cowen presented a known danger to guests
such that he should not have been hired.
Affirmed. Defendants may tax costs.
/s/ E. Thomas Fitzgerald
/s/ David H. Sawyer
/s/ Robert P. Young, Jr.
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