COA affirms hotel not liable in bedbug case

A man arguing a hotel was liable for bedbug bites he received while staying there failed to convince the Indiana Court of Appeals that the hotel had actual or constructive knowledge that the bugs were present in his room at that time.

While Maurice Johnson was a guest at Blue Chip Casino Hotel Spa in Michigan City in January 2017, he woke up to discover bedbug bites on his right arm and saw a live bedbug on his pillow. Upon the discovery, he pulled down the sheets and saw two shell casings from dead bedbugs.

In October 2017, Johnson filed a notice of claim in small-claims court in LaPorte County alleging that because of his stay, he received bed bugs bites and “incurred medical expenses and suffered emotional distress due to [Blue Chip’s] negligence and breach of their duty of care.” The trial small claims court ruled for Blue Chip, and the appellate court affirmed Wednesday in Maurice Johnson v. Blue Chip Casino, LLC, d/b/a Blue Chip Casino Hotel Spa, 18A-SC-788.

Blue Chip’s safety loss prevention manager, Rosella Luna, testified that because bedbugs are found in “hotels” and “a lot of other places,” Blue Chip has policies and procedures for inspecting and treating hotel rooms for them, as well as training housekeeping to identify them.

Blue Chip’s hotel rooms are cleaned and inspected daily, which includes looking for evidence of bedbugs on mattresses and in the nooks and crannies of the rooms. If a bed bug is found during an inspection, that room as well as the neighboring rooms are taken out of service. A professional pest-control company is called to inspect and, if necessary, treat the rooms. Then the treated rooms are held out of service until the pest-control company certifies that they’re clean and safe to rent.

Two months prior to Johnson’s stay, bedbugs were found in the same room, which was then inspected and treated. Luna confirmed the room was held out of service until deemed safe to use. Blue Chip received no further complaints about bedbugs until Johnson’s stay.

On appeal, Johnson argued the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur on Blue Chip, stating that in some situations an occurrence is so unusual that, absent a reasonable justification or explanation, those persons in control of the situation should be held responsible.

Johnson also contended that bedbugs and bed bug shells would not usually be found in hotel beds unless the hotel’s cleaning procedures fall below the reasonable standard.

But the appellate court found Johnson failed to prove that the presence of bed bugs in his hotel room more probably resulted from Blue Chip’s negligence as opposed to another cause.

“His argument assumes that he would not have woken up to bed-bug bites if the housekeepers had done a better job cleaning and/or inspecting his room,” Judge Nancy Vaidik wrote for the Wednesday opinion. “But because of the hidden nature of bedbugs, it is entirely possible that a more thorough cleaning and inspection would not have discovered or eliminated the bedbugs.”

Johnson argued that Blue Chip was still liable under premises liability, but the appellate court found he also failed to prove that Blue Chip had either actual or constructive knowledge that bedbugs were present in his room at the time of his stay. It pointed back to testimony from Luna, who informed the court Blue Chip did not have actual knowledge that there were bedbugs the room until Johnson called guest services to report them.

Further, the appellate court concluded Blue Chip had constructive knowledge because of its policies and procedures for inspecting and treating hotel rooms for bedbugs. It noted that Blue Chip also followed those procedures when bed bugs were found in the same room two months earlier.