Landlord Not Responsible for Attack on Tenant After Tenant Let Attacker In

Tenant, who worked as a psychiatrist in his home office, was conducting a patient session when the cousin of his former domestic partner barged into his apartment and demanded certain financial documents required for the child shared by tenant and his former partner. Tenant successfully expelled the cousin from the apartment. The tenant then walked his patient to the elevator and found the cousin still waiting there. After speaking with the cousin, tenant admitted him to the apartment to use his bathroom and, while tenant was printing the document requested, the cousin emerged and attacked tenant with a sledgehammer and stabbed him multiple times with a knife. The cousin and tenant's former partner were later convicted of felony assaults on the tenant. 

Tenant then sued landlord, claiming it was responsible for the attack. The court denied landlord's request to dismiss the case without trial. Landlord appealed and won. Tenant did raise legitimate questions regarding lapses in landlord's security protocols by allowing the cousin to enter and wander around the building for more than 20 minutes before exiting and then letting him re-enter without challenging him about his continued presence. However, tenant's conduct in re-admitting the cousin into the apartment after expelling him constituted an "intervening act and a superseding proximate cause" of the attack. This relieved landlord from any liability for failure to provide adequate building security.

Weiss v. Park Towers S. Co. LLC: 2024 NY Slip Op 02612, 208 NYS3d 610 (App. Div. 1 Dept.; 5/9/24; Manzanet-Daniels, JP, Singh, Kapnick, Gesmer, Rodriguez, JJ)