Summary
In Harris v. New York City Housing Authority, 211 AD2d 616 (2nd Dept 1995), decedent was murdered in defendant's building.
Summary of this case from Snipe v. HennieOpinion
January 9, 1995
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Garry, J.).
Ordered that the order is affirmed, with costs.
In 1988, Terry Harris was murdered in a building owned and controlled by the defendant New York City Housing Authority (hereinafter NYCHA). The plaintiff, Harris' mother, commenced this action against the NYCHA, alleging that Harris' murder was due to the NYCHA's failure to install and maintain a lock on the front door of the building where the murder occurred. The Supreme Court granted the NYCHA's motion for summary judgment. We affirm.
The record reveals that Harris was the victim of a targeted murder by a long-time enemy who had tried to kill him on at least one prior occasion. Such an intentional act was an unforeseeable, intervening force which severed the causal nexus between the alleged negligence of the NYCHA and the complained-of injury (see, Tarter v. Schildkraut, 151 A.D.2d 414; Iannelli v Powers, 114 A.D.2d 157; Santiago v. New York City Hous. Auth., 101 A.D.2d 735, affd 63 N.Y.2d 761). Moreover, there is no evidence that the assailant's entry onto the premises was due to the failure of the NYCHA to install or maintain a lock on the front door. Indeed, the record reveals that the assailant had a variety of friends and acquaintances in the building who could have allowed him access, and there is evidence that, at the time of the murder, the door had been tied open by a delivery person (see, Provenzano v. Roslyn Gardens Tenants Corp., 190 A.D.2d 718; Hendricks v. Kempler, 156 A.D.2d 425). Accordingly, the complaint was properly dismissed. Miller, J.P., Lawrence, Ritter and Santucci, JJ., concur.