Is Landlord Responsible for Admitting Visitor Who Attacked Tenant?

Tenant sued landlord for negligence in connection with injuries sustained in his apartment. The court denied landlord's request to dismiss the complaint. Tenant lived in and worked out of his apartment as a therapist at the building. Building procedures required the doormen to question and screen visitors. On the date in question, the doorman didn't follow these procedures and admitted a visitor to the residential portion of the building, even though the visitor stated that he was visiting a commercial tenant. The visitor, who was a relative of the tenant's ex-significant other, carried a large bag into the building which contained a sledge hammer and other weapons. The visitor entered the patient waiting area in tenant's apartment, and attacked and attempted to kill tenant. The visitor and tenant's ex-significant other were convicted of felonies in connection with this attack. 

The court noted that a targeted attack on a resident in an apartment building does not, by itself, ordinarily give rise to liability against the landlord for failure to provide adequate security. But, where a landlord's acts or omissions are a substantial cause of the attack, a landlord may be held responsible. In this case, there were questions of fact as to whether the proximate cause of tenant's injuries was the doorman's failure to screen the visitor in accordance with landlord's procedures, or whether the proximate or intervening cause was tenant allowing the visitor to enter his apartment. So, the case couldn't be dismissed without further fact-finding.

Weiss v. Park Towers S. Co., LLC: Index No. 161545/2015, 2023 NY Slip Op 32720(U)(Sup. Ct. NY; 8/7/23; Nervo, J)