It is an unfortunate truth that random criminal acts occur from time to time with innocent people targeted.  When this occurs on commercial property, litigation focuses on what the property owner did to prevent the criminal activity.  New Jersey jurisprudence requires a commercial property owner to take reasonable security precautions to protect invitees on the premises from foreseeable criminal acts.   In any individual case, whether this duty is breached depends on a number of factors.  Most often, this evaluation is for a jury.  However, where the facts are so one-sided, a judge may decide the matter in summary fashion.

In Alvardo v. The Blair House,the plaintiff drove to her boyfriend’s apartment complex a little after midnight. As she walked to his apartment, two individuals approached her.  They asked for her phone to make a call and returned it to her a moment later.  They then asked her to give them a ride to a nearby bus stop.  She agreed.  The three got into plaintiff’s car a moment later, and they drove off.  The trip took a criminal turn only off the property when the two directed the plaintiff to another location where they attacked her and stole her car.

The entire brief encounter in the parking lot was captured on surveillance video that was streamed to a live television monitor inside the building.  Security personnel was on hand at the time.  Nothing in the scene looked amiss; there was no hostility displayed, no aggression, no criminal act.

With these facts, the court found that there simply was no evidence that the property owner or security company breached their duty to the plaintiff.  The neighborhood where this occurred was not known for criminal activity, and the sequence in the parking lot would not have alerted anyone that the two had nefarious intentions.

While courts will impose a duty on a property owner to prevent foreseeable criminal activity, whether a breach occurred depends heavily on proofs such as the history of criminal activity in the area and the circumstances of the act involved.

For more information, contact Denise Fontana Ricci at .