Complaint Filed by Atain Specialty Insurance Company. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit a - Underlying Complaint, # 2 Exhibit B - Underlying Amended Complaint, # 3 Exhibit C - Policy, # 4 Exhibit D - Loss Notice, # 5 Exhibit E - 10-15-5 Letter, # 6 Exhibit F - 1-9-26 Letter, # 7 Civil Cover Sheet) Please Visit Our Website at Http://www.gand.uscourts.gov/commonly-used-forms to Obtain Pretrial Instructions and Pretrial Associated Forms Which Includes the Consent to Proceed Before U.S. Magistrate Form
INTRODUCTION
1This action for damages is brought by Plaintiff, a survivor of sex trafficking, under the Federal William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008
(“TVPRA”), 18 U.S.C. § 1595.
2Sex trafficking is defined under 22 U.S.C. § 7102 (11) as “[t]he recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purposes of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age.”
3Plaintiff meets the definition of a sex trafficking victim, induced by force, fraud,
Exhibit B
and coercion by a traffickers to engage in commercial sex at the subject hotels, by being psychologically and physically prohibited from escape by a traffickers, or alternatively, was a minor at the time of the trafficking.
4The Trafficking Victims Protections Reauthorization Act (“TVPRA”) provides a civil remedy for victims of a violation of the act.
5Section 1595 of the TVPRA provides that “[a]n individual who is a victim of a violation of this chapter may bring a civil action against the trafficker (or whoever knowingly benefits, financially or by receiving anything of value from participation in a venture which that person knew or should have known has engaged in an act in violation of this chapter) in an appropriate district court of the United States and may recover damages and reasonable attorney’s fees.” 18 U.S.C. § 1595.
PARTIES
6Due to the sensitive, private, and potentially retaliatory nature of the allegations herein, Plaintiff’s name and address is not contained herein to protect her safety, privacy and identity. Similarly situated plaintiffs nationwide have proceeded by pseudonym or by their initials due to the foregoing.
7Plaintiff is currently a resident of Georgia.
8Plaintiff was born in 1999.
9At all times relevant and material, Defendant Radheshvar, LLC d/b/a Motel 6 was a hotel owner, hotel operator, franchisee, manager, and/or supervisor of a hotel located at 2820 Chamblee Tucker Rd, Atlanta, GA 30341. As such, it is responsible for the subject hotel during the period Plaintiff was sex trafficked on said premises.
10At all times relevant and material, Defendant Radheshvar, LLC d/b/a Super 8 was a hotel owner, hotel operator, franchisee, manager, and/or supervisor of a hotel located at 2822 Chamblee Tucker Rd, Atlanta, GA 30341. As such, it is responsible for the subject hotel during the period Plaintiff was sex trafficked on said premises.
11At all times relevant and material, Defendant CPLG Properties, LLC was the owner of La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Atlanta Midtown – Buckhead located at 2535 Chantilly Dr NE, Atlanta, GA, 30324. CPLG was a hotel owner, hotel operator, franchisee, manager, and/or supervisor of the hotel. As such, it is responsible for the subject hotel during the period Plaintiff was sex trafficked on said premises.
12At all times relevant and material, Defendant Kuzzins Buford, LLC was the owner of Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham Atlanta/Buckhead Area Microtel located at 1840 Corporate Blvd NE, Atlanta, GA 30329. Kuzzins was the hotel owner, hotel operator, franchisee, manager, and/or supervisor of the hotel. As such, it is responsible for the subject hotel during the period Plaintiff was sex trafficked on said premises.
13At all times relevant and material, Defendant Ritz Carlton Hotel Company, LLC was a hotel owner, hotel operator, franchisee, manager, and/or supervisor of a hotel located at 3434 Peachtree Rd NE, Atlanta, GA, 30326. As such, it is responsible for the subject hotel during the period Plaintiff was sex trafficked on said premises.
14During the relevant period, Defendants were the operators of the subject aforesaid premises.
15Defendants acted as a franchisee and not a franchisor of the subject aforesaid premises.
JURISDICTION AND VENUE
16This Court has jurisdiction over this matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331 because this action arises under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States, namely 18 U.S.C. § 1595.
17Venue is proper in this district pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1391 because a substantial part of the events or omissions giving rise to the Count asserted in this action occurred in the judicial district where this action was brought, and Defendants conducts business within this District pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b).
FACTS
18As it pertains to the subject Defendants, Plaintiff was sex trafficked at the aforesaid hotels, owned and operated by Defendants, by her traffickers in 2015.
19Plaintiff was sex trafficked by Jamaal Obie and his brother, Quintavious Obie (“Perpetrators”).
20At the time she was trafficked, Plaintiff was aged between fifteen (15) and sixteen (16).
21In 2015, Plaintiff’s family was moving, and Plaintiff did not want to move with them.
22Plaintiff met the Perpetrators, and they offered her a place to stay.
23Once she moved in with them, they told her that they would set her up with a way to make money to take care of herself.
24Plaintiff was then sex trafficked by Perpetrators.
25Plaintiff was posted on Backpage by her Perpetrators.
26Perpetrators used drugs and alcohol to keep Plaintiff compliant.
27Perpetrators threatened Plaintiff’s family to keep her compliant.
28Perpetrators issued verbal threats to Plaintiff to keep her quiet.
29Perpetrators frequently made Plaintiff book the rooms at hotels using Quintavious’ wife’s identification. Quintavious’ wife’s name is Emily Waddell (“Emily”).
30Other times, Quintavious or Emily would book the rooms where the trafficking would occur.
31Plaintiff was sex trafficked at the Defendant hotels for almost an entire year until the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (“GBI”) found her through a Backpage ad.
32The GBI performed a “sting” operation at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead and rescued Plaintiff from her traffickers.
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Public U.S. federal court record (district court docket 73109864, document 1). Source via the RECAP Archive (Free Law Project). The same record is available from PACER. Informational only — not legal advice.