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Commercial Premises Security Liability

Generally, when people think of premises liability, or property liability in a personal injury context, they think of slip and fall or trip and fall cases. However, maintaining property so someone doesn’t slip and fall isn’t the limit of responsibility an owner has over their property. Commercial property owners may have a heightened duty to protect against the criminal acts of other people.

As a general rule, ordinary citizens do not have a duty to protect other individuals from the criminal acts of a third party. The logic behind this is that people should respect the law, thus, criminal acts are never predictable or foreseeable. Criminal violations are considered extraordinary deviations of social norms. Nevertheless, premises security liability places liability on property owners where a person is sexually assaulted, injured, or robbed on commercial property. The most common premises security liability cases arise from attacks or robberies on parking lots or garages, hotels, offices, schools or shopping centers. Generally, in these types of cases plaintiffs who are injured by the criminal acts of a third party may bring a civil lawsuit against the owner or manager of the property where the injury occurred. The reasoning is that the property owner or manager had a duty to protect their patrons against harm.

Though I have painted some broad strokes, these cases can be complicated. In premises security liability, a property owner’s negligence may depend on whether the third party’s criminal acts were foreseeable. In some jurisdictions, foreseeability depends on whether similar criminal acts have occurred on the premises; this is known as the “similar acts” rule. In a similar acts rule jurisdiction, if a hotel guest is robbed while on hotel property, the criminal act is foreseeable if there were past robberies at the same hotel. In other jurisdictions, foreseeability depends on whether the circumstances as a whole would lead a reasonable person to know the criminal acts were possible; this is known as the “totality of circumstances” rule. In this type of jurisdiction, if a hotel guest is robbed it may be foreseeable depending on whether the hotel is located in a bad area, the hotel’s level of security, whether other hotels in the area have been robbed etc.

Regardless of the jurisdiction, in premises security liability a property owner or manager may be liable for a third party’s criminal acts. The property owner will be liable if it was their negligence that caused the dangerous conditions. The property owner was negligent if they knew or should have known that criminal acts were possible on their property, and they failed to take the necessary precautions. All commercial property owners have a responsibility to take reasonable steps to protect the public from criminal acts. If you have been the victim of a criminal act while on commercial property, and you suffered personal injury as a result, it may be advisable to consult with a personal injury attorney.

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