A fire that broke out Monday almost completely destroyed the 134-year-old Floyd County Courthouse in Rome, Georgia, leaving officials looking for new office space for some government functions, local news sites reported.
The courthouse, built in 1892 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was undergoing a $4 million renovation when it caught fire around 2 p.m. Fire crews battled the blaze for hours in strong winds, but much of the interior of the structure and the clock tower could not be saved, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting and multiple other news outlets.
All 35 employees inside the building were evacuated and no injuries were reported, Fox 5 Atlanta reported. County officials were considering emergency funding to relocate operations, including the tax commissioner offices. The property was covered by the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia’s insurance trust, the county manager told Atlanta News First.
The cause of the fire has not been reported.
Even in an age of frequent mass shootings in public places, a shooting can be unforeseeable and a supermarket has no duty to protect customers from random acts of violence, a Florida appeals court decided in a major win for businesses and liability insurers.
“…While events giving rise to this case are undeniably tragic, the law imposed no duty on Publix to protect against this unforeseeable criminal act,” a three-judge panel of Florida’s 4th District Court of Appeals wrote in its March 18 opinion.
The opinion upheld a Palm Beach Circuit Court decision in a lawsuit brought by the family of a toddler and his grandmother who were killed in a 2021 shooting at a Publix grocery store in Royal Palm Beach, Florida. The plaintiffs presented data showing almost 450 gun incidents and 137 gun deaths at national grocery chains from 2020 to 2022, including five deaths at Publix stores, the opinion explained.
The family’s attorneys also argued that Publix had implemented annual active shooter training for employees at all stores, and that showed that the company was aware of the potential for shootings. Publix’ lawyers countered that no major incidents had occurred at the Crossroads store and that national statistics do not prove impending danger at a specific locale.
The trial court in 2024 granted summary judgment for Publix, finding the supermarket owed no legal duty to protect against unforeseen criminal acts. The appellate court this week agreed.