Summary
In Gilmartin, as in the case at bar, defendant security services' company provided security service at a housing complex where plaintiff was injured, in the lobby, by an intruder.
Summary of this case from KELLY v. NORGATE BUS. ASSOC.Opinion
June 19, 1990
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Bronx County (Anita Florio, J.).
Negligence cases by their nature do not usually lend themselves to summary judgment (Ugarriza v. Schmieder, 46 N.Y.2d 471, 474) and this case falls within that principle. The mere existence of an intervening criminal act by a third person will not completely absolve a defendant landlord or defendant's security service from liability where such defendants should have reasonably anticipated a risk of harm from criminal activity to persons on the premises (see, Muniz v. Flohern, Inc., 155 A.D.2d 172, lv granted 161 A.D.2d 1218).
In 1986, plaintiff, a tenant in the Parkchester housing complex in the Bronx, was injured when she was forcibly robbed by an unknown intruder in the lobby of her apartment building. Our review of the record reveals that there are questions of fact as to the staff's change in shift procedures, which, along with other factors, allowed the complex to be unguarded for at least 15 minutes. It was during one of these shift changes that the robbery occurred.
Concur — Kupferman, J.P., Sullivan, Rosenberger, Kassal and Smith, JJ.