Spiegel & Utrera, P.A. Newsletter - Volume X: Issue XVI Information, Guidance, Counsel, Corporations, Limited Liability Companies & more!
Landlord Had Duty To
Protect Visitors From Violent Tenant
A
landlord can be sued for failing to take at least minimal steps to
alleviate the risk posed by a violent tenant, a Court has ruled. The
Plaintiff was a former tenant of the Defendant�s apartment complex who
occasionally returned to visit family still living there. A tenant with
a history of intimidating behavior had previously brandished a firearm
at visitors and other tenants. At least one such previous incident
involving the Plaintiff�s family was reported to the property manager in
writing. When the tenant observed the Plaintiff on the premises, he got
a shotgun, shot the Plaintiff twice and beat him before the police
arrived to subdue him. The Plaintiff sued, claiming the landlord had
breached a duty to protect him from the tenant. The landlord argued the
law required a showing that the tenant had committed a nearly identical
prior crime before a duty to protect visitors could be implied. But the
Court disagreed and stated, �to establish heightened foreseeabillity,
the law requires �prior similar criminal incidents (or other indications
of a reasonably foreseeable risk of violent criminal assaults in that
location) and does not require a showing of prior nearly identical
criminal incidents�.�
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