Attack on Tenant Not Foreseeable

Tenant sued landlord, claiming negligence. A man followed her into her apartment building, walked ahead of her up the stairs, then ran back down as tenant opened her second-floor apartment door. The man pushed tenant into her apartment and sexually assaulted her at gun point. Tenant claimed that landlord didn't provide adequate building security in light of the crime in the area. Landlord asked the court to dismiss the case without a trial. The court ruled against landlord. Landlord appealed, and the appeals court reversed and dismissed the case. There was insufficient proof that there was a question of fact requiring a trial. Pretrial questioning of tenant, the building super, and other witnesses, as well as a review of the police reports, showed that there was some criminal activity in the neighborhood for several years before tenant was attacked. But with the exception of a shooting in the neighborhood three years earlier, the other crimes were low level and not the kind that would make the attack on tenant predictable.

Maria T. v. New York Holding Company Associates: NYLJ, 6/19/08, p. 33, col. 2 (App. Div. 1 Dept.; Saxe, JP, Nardelli, Catterson, McGuire, JJ)