Santana v. Rainbow Cleaners, Inc.

OPINION

Justice FLAHERTY,

for the Court.

Did a community mental health center that treated an outpatient who suffered from a mental disability assume a duty to exercise control over the patient to prevent him from committing an act of violence? Based on the record presented to us in this case, we hold that it did not.

The plaintiff, Zaida Santana, individually, and as parent and next friend of her two children, 1 filed suit in the Providence County Superior Court against the defendant, The Providence Center, Inc., alleging that because of the defendant’s negligence, she was severely beaten by…