Landlord Failed to Demonstrate Assault on Tenant Was Not Foreseeable—Landlord’s Summary Judgment Motion Properly Denied

The Second Department determined Supreme Court properly denied landlord’s motion for summary judgment in an action stemming from an assault on a tenant at the landlord’s premises.  The assault took place when the lone security guard took his regular lunch break, leaving the premises unguarded. The defendant did not demonstrate a lack of notice of the same or similar criminal conduct and therefore failed to demonstrate the assault was not foreseeable:

A landlord is not the insurer of the safety of its tenants … . Nevertheless, landlords have a duty to take reasonable precautions to protect tenants and visitors from foreseeable harm, including foreseeable criminal conduct by third parties … . To establish that criminal acts were foreseeable, the criminal conduct at issue must be shown to be reasonably predictable based on the prior occurrence of the same or similar criminal activity at a location sufficiently proximate to the subject location … .

Here, on its motion for summary judgment, [the landlord] failed to establish, prima facie, that it lacked notice of the same or similar criminal activity occurring on the premises. Karim v 89th Jamaica Realty Co., L.P., 2015 NY Slip Op 03329, 2nd Dept 4-22-15