Landlord Not Responsible for Attack on Tenant in Lobby

Tenant sued landlord for negligence after he was assaulted by a group of men in the building lobby and sustained serious head and facial injuries. Tenant testified that he had previously complained to the building super that a group of men were loitering in the lobby and that he suspected they were selling drugs. The court ruled for tenant after a jury trial, finding landlord 75 percent at fault. The jury awarded tenant almost $7 million, although the judge reduced it to $4 million. Landlord appealed and won. The appeals court agreed that landlord wasn’t responsible for tenant’s injury. Although it has a duty to take minimal precautions to protect tenants from foreseeable harm, landlord wasn’t the insurer of tenant’s safety. Since there was no proof of prior criminal activity at the building, tenant’s complaint was insufficient to establish the foreseeability of the attack that led to his injuries. Landlord wasn’t responsible.

Beato v. Cosmopolitan Associates LLC: 2010 N.Y. Slip Op. 00458, 2010 WL 191740 (1/19/10) (App. Div. 2 Dept.; Rivera, JP, Leventhal, Belen, Austin, JJ)