Practice point: While landlords are not insurers of their tenants’ safety, they have a common-law duty to take minimal precautions to protect tenants from foreseeable harm, including criminal conduct by third-parties.
Practitioners should note that third-party criminal conduct is foreseeable as a matter of law if it is reasonably predictable based on the prior occurrence of the same or similar activity at a sufficiently proximate location.
Case: Beato v. Cosmopolitan Assoc., LLC, NY Slip Op 00458 (2d Dept. 2010)
The opinion is here.
Tomorrow’s issue: Employment Law.
