Could owners of Bonefish Grill be liable in Savannah Gold's death?

Similar situation in Illinois resulted in suit brought against Home Depot

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Since Lee Rodarte and Savannah Gold worked together at Bonefish Grill in Mandarin, could the company that owns the restaurant be liable in any way for what happened?

In a similar case this year, Home Depot was sued by the family of an Illinois woman, who was murdered by her supervisor. 

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The restaurant closed its doors Sunday, allowing employees to mourn the loss. The restaurant re-opened for business Monday at 4 p.m.

The other case where Home Depot is facing a lawsuit has some wondering if the same could happen here.

"For the most part, it would be hard to establish some liability on Bonefish for the romantic kind of in the workplace type of relationship that it seems to have occurred," said attorney Ronda People-Waters.

Peoples-Waters said, though, don’t rule it out as a possibility. She said that the key to liability is in the details. 

"I think that it would come about only if you can clearly show that the use of authority has come into place or maybe if one was obviously a non-minor and there was a minor, those type of things would really establish the clear liability," Peoples-Waters said. "Also the question is, did they sign some type of agreement, you know or when you have those employment contracts, does it state in that contract that they're not supposed to have these type of coworker relationships?"

The company that owns Bonefish Grill, Bloomin' Brands, has offered its condolences since the discovery of Gold’s body over the weekend.