Is Landlord Responsible for Laundry Room Attack on Tenant?

Tenant sued landlord for negligence after she was sexually assaulted in the building laundry room. The court granted landlord's request to dismiss the case without a trial. Tenant appealed, and the case was reopened. The attacker entered the building by "piggy backing" on another tenant who entered after unlocking the building's front door. The attacker had done this previously at the building complex and assaulted other women, and landlord knew this since 2006. So there were questions of fact as to whether the attack on the complaining tenant was foreseeable, whether landlord fulfilled its common law duty to provide minimal precautions to protect tenants, and whether landord was negligent.

Gonzalez v. Riverbay Corporation: 2017 NY Slip Op 04042, 2017 WL 2177987 (App. Div. 1 Dept.; 5/18/17; Tom, JP, Mazzarelli, Andrias, Manzanet-Daniels, Webber, JJ)