Murphy v. CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. (Negligent Security Suit Over Northwoods Mall Food Court Stabbing)
A woman stabbed in the food court of Northwoods Mall in North Charleston, South Carolina on March 4, 2026 has sued the mall's owner, CBL & Associates Properties, Inc., along with its security contractors, alleging inadequate security let her attacker walk in with an open knife and attack her before anyone intervened. The suit, filed in late September 2026, is the latest in a series of premises-liability claims arising from security incidents at the same mall, including an earlier shooting that also produced litigation against the ownership and its security vendors.
Why it matters
Negligent-security claims invite discovery into a property's entire security budget, staffing levels, and incident history, and courts are increasingly willing to let such claims reach a jury once a property has an established record of prior violent incidents. For CBL and other mall owners and REITs managing properties with documented security histories, each new incident makes the 'unforeseeable' defense harder to sustain and raises the practical stakes of security staffing and vendor-indemnification decisions.
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