>well, my gut says if the hotel had a freezer that this girl
>could enter and that freezer had an escape mechanism that was
>broken the hotel is fucked.

I'm pretty confident the hotel's liability insurer will roll right over on this one.

They could argue mitigating circumstances:
a) Young lady was not a guest
b) Young lady was inebriated
c) The young lady's venturing into no-fly zone could potentially rescind her invitee status.
d) apparently there are specific rules regarding a hotel's obligations to a guest or invitee regarding whether the guest is on hotel premises for 'illicit purposes' and underage drinking could certainly be considered illicit. Anything I can find on this is vague though so I don't know one way or another.

BUT

a) hotel did not ask her to leave, so not being a guest doesn't affect her status as invitee;
b) we're uncertain of how hotel has handled/marked no-fly zone;
c) her inebriated status could also be argued to mean the hotel needed to exercise extra caution
d) the hotel allowed an underage party on its premises
e) the fact remains that an invitee died on the hotel's premises, and if they had searched for her or even just allowed the family to search for her when the matter was first brought to their attention, the young lady may still be alive.

So while some circumstances may provide mitigation for just how fucked the hotel actually is, the hotel is still fucked.

And it's possible several other parties will also be fucked.

>if that mechanism was
>functioning properly then the hotel is in less trouble - the
>issue might still be why was she able to get down into that
>kitchen at all?

Regardless of whether the mechanism was working correctly there is a good chance a liability claim will be brought against the manufacturer of the freezer as well (either directly, or they will be enjoined by the hotel's insurer). If the closing mechanism wasn't working properly, the freezer manufacturer's insurer will likely cough up some dough, and then subrogate against the manufacturer of the opening/closing/locking mechanism.
If hotel security is an independent service, the security provider will likely be brought in at some point.
And unless they don't have insurance, there may also be claims against the host(s) of the party, and other party attendees who provided drinks to the young lady.

Basically, as the claims pile up and the insurers start to pony up, each party will look for other parties to help share the blame. It's very possible that the other parties will not be found liable, but that won't prevent the young lady's family from going after them, or the hotel's insurer from trying to pass the buck.

-------
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album ---> http://greenwoodburns.bandcamp.com/releases
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avy by buckshot_defunct