## Facts

- Sharon Eddy, age 61, stayed at the Bricktown SpringHill Suites in Oklahoma City with her mother, Pauline Eddy.
- Around 7:30 p.m., Sharon went to the hotel bar. Bartenders Cody Wisley and Lauren Jackson served her a vodka cocktail, four high-alcohol beers, and a shot of whiskey.
- Sharon intermittently left the bar to smoke or use the restroom.
- After her last cigarette break, Sharon began speaking louder, but the bartenders did not observe bloodshot eyes or slurred speech.
- Even so, the bartenders decided to stop serving Sharon alcohol. Sharon agreed and drank water.
- At about 10:13 p.m., Sharon paid her tab. When she stood up from her barstool, she fell.
- The bartenders helped Sharon up and did not believe she needed emergency medical attention.
- Wisley obtained a rolling office chair, and two female hotel employees rolled Sharon to her room; those employees were not told Sharon had fallen or had been cut off at the bar.
- In the room, Sharon appeared coherent and happy and needed only limited assistance. Pauline spoke with Sharon and did not notice signs of significant intoxication or injury.
- Around 3:00 a.m., Sharon was found dead. The medical examiner determined the cause of death was acute ethanol toxicity, with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.30 g/dL.
- Pauline sued Bricktown Hospitality, LLC (the hotel owner), asserting negligence based on (1) a negligent voluntary undertaking when staff assisted Sharon and returned her to her room, and (2) breach of the high degree of care an innkeeper owes its guests. Bricktown moved for summary judgment.

## Issues

1. Whether hotel staff’s actions in cutting off alcohol service, assisting Sharon after a fall, and transporting her to her room could constitute a voluntary undertaking creating a duty to use reasonable care.
2. Whether, under Oklahoma law, an innkeeper’s heightened duty to a guest could support liability based on the bar service and the hotel’s response once staff observed impairment and a fall.
3. Whether disputed facts on notice, reasonableness of the response, and causation required a jury trial rather than summary judgment.

## Decision

- The court denied Bricktown’s motion for summary judgment.
- The court held that a reasonable jury could find Bricktown, through its employees, undertook to assist Sharon in a way that created a duty to act with reasonable care and that the manner of assistance could be found negligent.
- The court also held that a reasonable jury could find Bricktown failed to meet the high degree of care owed by an innkeeper to a guest, given the amount of alcohol served, Sharon’s observed condition at the end of service, her fall, and the steps staff took (or did not take) after the fall.
- Because the record permitted competing views about what staff knew or should have known and what a reasonable response required, the court left breach and causation for the factfinder.

## Legal Principles

- A party that voluntarily renders aid or services to another may assume a duty to use reasonable care in performing that undertaking and may be liable if negligent performance increases the risk of harm or if others reasonably rely on the undertaking.
- Under Oklahoma law, an innkeeper owes guests a high degree of care; whether the innkeeper acted reasonably depends on the circumstances known (or that should have been known) to hotel personnel at the time.
- Summary judgment is generally improper when material facts bearing on duty-triggering conduct, notice of risk, breach, and causation are genuinely disputed and reasonable jurors could differ on the inferences to draw from the evidence.

## Conclusion

The court allowed Pauline Eddy’s wrongful-death negligence claims to proceed because a jury could find that hotel staff assumed responsibility for Sharon Eddy’s safety when they intervened and returned her to her room and that, under both negligent-undertaking principles and the elevated standard applicable to innkeepers, Bricktown’s employees may have responded unreasonably to Sharon’s condition and fall in a way that contributed to her death.


Pauline Eddy v. Bricktown Hospitality, LLC, 2020 WL 12787576 (2022)