Landlord Not Responsible for Armed Robbery of Tenant

Tenant sued landlord for damages based on property loss and personal injury after the tenant of another building apartment and three others entered tenant's apartment through tenant's terrace door and robbed tenant at gunpoint. Tenant was a dealer in rare coins and other antiques, and kept some of his merchandise in his apartment. It appeared that the robbers had accessed the apartment terrace from the roof above. The stolen items were found in the other tenant's apartment, and he and the others were convicted of the crime in federal court. Tenant had a home alarm system that hadn't been activated at the time of the robbery. Tenant argued that landlord failed to provide a competent doorman or reasonable security, and that this was the proximate cause of the theft. The court granted landlord's request to dismiss the case without trial.

Tenant appealed and lost. Landlord showed it had no notice of the same or similar criminal activity at any location near the building or apartment. So, tenant failed to prove that landlord was responsible for the incident.

Markov v. Grecian Gardens Co.: 2020 NY Slip Op 06771, Index No. 2018-01041 (App. Div. 2 Dept.; 11/18/20; Mastro, JP, Miller, Maltese, Nelson, JJ)