Property Owners May Be Found Negligent For Inadequate Security

April 08, 2011

If someone entered your apartment -- because the front door locks were broken -- and physically assaulted you, it may be possible to hold the landlord legally responsible. The same is true for management in a restaurant or other public place, if an attack occurs there.

Under traditional laws of negligence, one private person has no duty to another private person to protect him or her from an assault or other violent act. For many years, landlords, innkeepers, and other property owners used this quirk of the common law to avoid liability. But across the country, courts are increasingly recognizing that a premises liability claim can be based on negligent security.

Take the case of a New York City woman who was sexually assaulted by a man who entered her apartment. She had repeatedly notified the landlord that the apartment's front door locks were broken, to no avail. A jury ruled in favor of the woman, and found the landlord negligent.

In another case, a man dining at a restaurant in Washington State was left paralyzed when a fight broke out and one man pulled a gun and began shooting. Lawyers in the case pointed out that the restaurant had been plagued by crime, and police had visited 30 times over three years for crimes that included assaults, drugs, sexual harassment and rape. The jury found a pattern of negligence by the restaurant for failing to have a security guard on duty.

Nevada courts have not yet addressed these specific types of cases definitively. But in a case involving an assault in a hotel-casino parking lot, a court found that the proprietors should have anticipated crimes of this nature and did not provide adequate security. Like most cases of inadequate security nationwide, the decisions generally turn on whether the landowner should have foreseen that an incident of this nature was likely.

Anyone concerned about inadequate security should be sure to notify the property owner of dangerous conditions, such as broken locks, inadequate lighting or lack of security guards. Anyone who has been injured due to the negligence of a landlord or other property owner should talk to an experienced personal injury attorney.

Article provided by Harris & Harris Lawyers
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