Dustin SOLDANO, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Howard O'DANIELS, Defendant and Respondent. 141 Cal.App.3d 443, 190 Cal.Rptr. 310 Court of Appeal, Fifth District, California. (March 28, 1983) OPINION ANDREEN, Associate Justice. Does a business establishment incur liability for wrongful death if it denies use of its telephone to a good samaritan who explains an emergency situation occurring without and wishes to call the police? This appeal follows a judgment of dismissal of a complaint for wrongful death upon a motion for summary judgment...[by defendant]. "This action arises out of a shooting death occurring on August 9, 1977. Plaintiff's father [Darrell Soldano] was as shot and killed by one Rudolph Villanueva on that date at defendant's Happy Jack's Saloon. This defendant [O'Daniels] owns and operates the Circle Inn which is an eating establishment located across the street from Happy Jack's. Plaintiff's second cause of action against this defendant is one for negligence. "Plaintiff [Soldano] alleges that on the date of the shooting, a patron of Happy Jack's Saloon came into the Circle Inn and informed a Circle Inn employee that a man had been threatened at Happy Jack's. He requested the employee either call the police or allow him to use the Circle Inn phone to call the police. That employee allegedly

refused to call the police and allegedly refused to allow the patron to use the phone to make his own call. Plaintiff alleges that the actions of the Circle Inn employee were a breach of the legal duty that the Circle Inn owed to the decedent." We were advised at oral argument that the employee was the defendant's bartender. The state of the record is unsatisfactory in that it does not disclose the physical location of the telephone--whether on the bar, in a private office behind a closed door or elsewhere. The only factual matter before the trial court was ... [an