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Individual franchisees – and not the 7-Eleven Corp -- are responsible for day-to-day control of their stores, U.S. District Judge Joseph Rodriguez said in tossing out the lawsuit filed by Adil Boutahli.
Boutahli – who went on to become a world-class wheelchair tennis player – was working the overnight shift sol at a 7-Eleven in Pennsauken in January 2014 when three robbers pistol-whipped and shot him four times, authorities said.
He was struck in each arm and twice in the abdomen, suffering spinal cord injuries with leg paralysis that confined Boutahli, 35, to a wheelchair.
His assailants were never caught.
The Morrocan native, who’d previously played goalie for the NJ Rangers soccer team in a developmental league, remained in a coma for three weeks at Cooper University Hospital in Camden.
He later was transferred to Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in Philadelphia, where he began playing wheelchair tennis and eventually rose to 5th-best in the entire nation for his group while playing in national and international tournaments.
Rodriguez rejected a lawsuit filed by Boutahli against 7-Eleven Corp, saying that the store chain “owed no duty of care to the employee.”
7-Eleven has agreements with its franchises that give it control over several aspects of individual store operations, but the franchisees control “the manner and means of and the conduct of agents and employees, including the day-to-day operations of the Store and all Store employees,” the judge said the agreement states.
“In short, the franchise agreement shows with clarity that, while 7-Eleven does have certain control over the store, it does not exercise control over the day-to-day operations of the store,” Rodriguez wrote.
As a result, 7-Eleven cannot be held liable for “harms that Boutahli suffered as a result of the armed robbery,” the judge concluded.
READ MORE ABOUT THIS CASE: 7-Eleven Not Liable For Clerk Injuries In Holdup At Franchisee’s Store, Judge Rules (New Jersey Law Journal)
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