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Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › D.C. Circuit › 1970 › Kline v. 1500 Massachusetts Ave. Apartment Corp.
Mr. Albert J. Ahern, Jr., Washington, D. C., for appellant.
Mr. Laurence T. Scott, Washington, D. C., for appellee.
The appellee apartment corporation states that there is "only one issue presented for review * * * whether a duty should be placed on a landlord to take steps to protect tenants from foreseeable criminal acts committed by third parties". The District Court as a matter of law held that there is no such duty. We find that there is, and that in the circumstances here the applicable standard of care was breached. We therefore reverse and remand to the District Court for the determination of damages for the appellant.
* The appellant, Sarah B. Kline, sustained serious injuries when she was criminally assaulted and robbed at approximately 10:15 in the evening by an intruder in the common hallway of an apartment house at 1500 Massachusetts Avenue. This facility, into which the appellant Kline moved in October 1959, is a large apartment building with approximately 585 individual apartment units. It has a main entrance on Massachusetts Avenue, with side entrances on both 15th and 16th Streets. At the time the appellant first signed a lease a doorman was on duty at the main entrance twenty-four hours a day, and at least one employee at all times manned a desk in the lobby from which all persons using the elevators could be observed.1 The 15th Street door adjoined the entrance to a parking garage used by both the tenants and the public. Two garage attendants were stationed at this dual entranceway; the duties of each being arranged so that one of them always was in position to observe those entering either the apartment building or the garage. The 16th Street entrance was unattended during the day but was locked after 9:00 P.M.
Shortly after 10:00 P.M. on November 17, 1966, Miss Kline was assaulted and robbed just outside her apartment on the first floor above the street level of this 585 unit apartment building. This occurred only two months after Leona Sullivan, another female tenant, had been similarly attacked in the same commonway.
At the outset we note that of the crimes of violence, robbery, and assault which had been occurring with mounting frequency on the premises at 1500 Massachusetts Avenue, the assaults on Miss Kline and Miss Sullivan took place in the hallways of the building, which were under the exclusive control of the appellee landlord. Even in those crimes of robbery or assault committed in individual apartments, the intruders of necessity had to gain entrance through the common entry and passageways.4 These premises fronted on three heavily traveled streets, and had multiple entrances. The risk to be guarded against therefore was the risk of unauthorized entrance into the apartment house by intruders bent upon some crime of violence or theft.
While the apartment lessees themselves could take some steps to guard against this risk by installing extra heavy locks and other security devices on the doors and windows of their respective apartments, yet this risk in the greater part could only be guarded against by the landlord. No individual tenant had it within his power to take measures to guard the garage entranceways, to provide scrutiny at the main entrance of the building, to patrol the common hallways and elevators, to set up any kind of a security alarm system in the building, to provide additional locking devices on the main doors, to provide a system of announcement for authorized visitors only, to close the garage doors at appropriate hours, and to see that the entrance was manned at all times.
The risk of criminal assault and robbery on a tenant in the common hallways of the building was thus entirely predictable; that same risk had been occurring with increasing frequency over a period of several months immediately prior to the incident giving rise to this case; it was a risk whose prevention or minimization was almost entirely within the power of the landlord; and the risk materialized in the assault and robbery of appellant on November 17, 1966.
It has long been well settled in this jurisdiction that, where a landlord leases separate portions of property and reserves under his own control the halls, stairs, or other parts of the property for use in common by all tenants, he has a duty to all those on the premises of legal right to use ordinary care and diligence to maintain the retained parts in a reasonably safe condition.
While Levine v. Katz dealt with a physical defect in the building leading to plaintiff's injury, the rationale as applied to predictable criminal acts by third parties is the same.5 The duty is the landlord's because by his control of the areas of common use and common danger he is the only party who has the power to make the necessary repairs or to provide the necessary protection.
As a general rule, a private person does not have a duty to protect another from a criminal attack by a third person. We recognize that this rule has sometimes in the past been applied in landlord-tenant law, even by this court.6 Among the reasons for the application of this rule to landlords are: judicial reluctance to tamper with the traditional common law concept of the landlord-tenant relationship; the notion that the act of a third person in committing an intentional tort or crime is a superseding cause of the harm to another resulting therefrom; the oftentimes difficult problem of determining foreseeability of criminal acts; the vagueness of the standard which the landlord must meet; the economic consequences of the imposition of the duty; and conflict with the public policy allocating the duty of protecting citizens from criminal acts to the government rather than the private sector.
But the rationale of this very broad general rule falters when it is applied to the conditions of modern day urban apartment living, particularly in the circumstances of this case. The rationale of the general rule exonerating a third party from any duty to protect another from a criminal attack has no applicability to the landlord-tenant relationship in multiple dwelling houses. The landlord is no insurer of his tenants' safety, but he certainly is no bystander. And where, as here, the landlord has notice of repeated criminal assaults and robberies, has notice that these crimes occurred in the portion of the premises exclusively within his control, has every reason to expect like crimes to happen again, and has the exclusive power to take preventive action, it does not seem unfair to place upon the landlord a duty to take those steps which are within his power to minimize the predictable risk to his tenants.
In the case at bar we place the duty of taking protective measures guarding the entire premises and the areas peculiarly under the landlord's control against the perpetration of criminal acts upon the landlord, the party to the lease contract who has the effective capacity to perform these necessary acts.
As a footnote to Javins, supra, Judge Wright, in clearing away some of the legal underbrush from medieval common law obscuring the modern landlord-tenant relationship, referred to an innkeeper's liability in comparison with that of the landlord to his tenant. "Even the old common law courts responded with a different rule for a landlord-tenant relationship which did not conform to the model of the usual agrarian lease. Much more substantial obligations were placed upon the keepers of inns (the only multiple dwelling houses known to the common law)."
This language seems to indicate that the court was using the word foreseeable interchangeably with the word possible. In that context, the statement is quite correct. It would be folly to impose liability for mere possibilities. But we must reach the question of liability for attacks which are foreseeable in the sense that they are probable and predictable. Thus, the United States Supreme Court, in Lillie v. Thompson17 encountered no difficulty in finding that the defendant-employer was liable to the employee because it "was aware of conditions which created a likelihood" of criminal attack.
In the instant case, the landlord had notice, both actual and constructive, that the tenants were being subjected to crimes against their persons and their property in and from the common hallways. For the period just prior to the time of the assault upon appellant Kline the record contains unrefuted evidence that the apartment building was undergoing a rising wave of crime. Under these conditions, we can only conclude that the landlord here "was aware of conditions which created a likelihood" (actually, almost a certainty) that further criminal attacks upon tenants would occur.
Upon consideration of all pertinent factors, we find that there is a duty of protection owed by the landlord to the tenant in an urban multiple unit apartment dwelling.
Summarizing our analysis, we find that this duty of protection arises, first of all, from the logic of the situation itself. If we were answering without the benefit of any prior precedent the issue as posed by the appellee landlord here, "whether a duty should be placed on a landlord to take steps to protect tenants from foreseeable criminal acts committed by third parties," we should have no hesitancy in answering it affirmatively, at least on the basis of the facts of this case.
As between tenant and landlord, the landlord is the only one in the position to take the necessary acts of protection required. He is not an insurer, but he is obligated to minimize the risk to his tenants. Not only as between landlord and tenant is the landlord best equipped to guard against the predictable risk of intruders, but even as between landlord and the police power of government, the landlord is in the best position to take the necessary protective measures. Municipal police cannot patrol the entryways and the hallways, the garages and the basements of private multiple unit apartment dwellings. They are neither equipped, manned, nor empowered to do so. In the area of the predictable risk which materialized in this case, only the landlord could have taken measures which might have prevented the injuries suffered by appellant.
Thirdly, if we reach back to seek the precedents of common law, on the question of whether there exists or does not exist a duty on the owner of the premises to provide protection against criminal acts by third parties, the most analogous relationship to that of the modern day urban apartment house dweller is not that of a landlord and tenant, but that of innkeeper and guest. We can also consider other relationships, cited above, in which an analogous duty has been found to exist.
We now turn to the standard of care which should be applied in judging if the landlord has fulfilled his duty of protection to the tenant. Although in many cases the language speaks as if the standard of care itself varies, in the last analysis the standard of care is the same — reasonable care in all the circumstances.21 The specific measures to achieve this standard vary with the individual circumstances. It may be impossible to describe in detail for all situations of landlord-tenant relationships, and evidence of custom amongst landlords of the same class of building may play a significant role in determining if the standard has been met.
In the case at bar, appellant's repeated efforts to introduce evidence as to the standard of protection commonly provided in apartment buildings of the same character and class as 1500 Massachusetts Avenue at the time of the assault upon Miss Kline were invariably frustrated by the objections of opposing counsel and the impatience of the trial judge. At one point during appellant's futile attempts, the judge commented with respect to the degree of proof required to show a custom: "I think the old proverb that one swallow does not make a summer applies. If you can get 100 swallows, you say this must be summertime."
[M]ay I remind you that it is very dangerous to win a case by excluding the other side's testimony because the Court of Appeals might say that testimony should have been admitted even though you might have won the case with the testimony in.
Appellant then attempted to offer evidence of individual apartment houses with which she was familiar. The trial judge became impatient with the swallow by swallow approach, and needled by opposing counsel's objections, disregarded his own admonition and cut short appellant's efforts in this direction. The record as to custom is thus unsatisfactory, but its deficiencies are directly chargeable to defendant's counsel and the trial judge, not appellant.
We therefore hold in this case that the applicable standard of care in providing protection for the tenant is that standard which this landlord himself was employing in October 1959 when the appellant became a resident on the premises at 1500 Massachusetts Avenue. The tenant was led to expect that she could rely upon this degree of protection. While we do not say that the precise measures for security which were then in vogue should have been kept up (e.g., the number of people at the main entrances might have been reduced if a tenant-controlled intercom-automatic latch system had been installed in the common entryways),22 we do hold that the same relative degree of security should have been maintained.
Given this duty of protection, and the standard of care as defined, it is clear that the appellee landlord breached its duty toward the appellant tenant here.24 The risk of criminal assault and robbery on any tenant was clearly predictable, a risk of which the appellee landlord had specific notice, a risk which became reality with increasing frequency, and this risk materialized on the very premises peculiarly under the control, and therefore the protection, of the landlord to the injury of the appellant tenant. The question then for the District Court becomes one of damages only. To us the liability is clear.
Having said this, it would be well to state what is not said by this decision. We do not hold that the landlord is by any means an insurer of the safety of his tenants. His duty is to take those measures of protection which are within his power and capacity to take, and which can reasonably be expected to mitigate the risk of intruders assaulting and robbing tenants. The landlord is not expected to provide protection commonly owed by a municipal police department; but as illustrated in this case, he is obligated to protect those parts of his premises which are not usually subject to periodic patrol and inspection by the municipal police. We do not say that every multiple unit apartment house in the District of Columbia should have those same measures of protection which 1500 Massachusetts Avenue enjoyed in 1959, nor do we say that 1500 Massachusetts Avenue should have precisely those same measures in effect at the present time. Alternative and more up-to-date methods may be equally or even more effective.
Granted, the discharge of this duty of protection by landlords will cause, in many instances, the expenditure of large sums for additional equipment and services, and granted, the cost will be ultimately passed on to the tenant in the form of increased rents. This prospect, in itself, however, is no deterrent to our acknowledging and giving force to the duty, since without protection the tenant already pays in losses from theft, physical assault and increased insurance premiums.
The landlord is entirely justified in passing on the cost of increased protective measures to his tenants, but the rationale of compelling the landlord to do it in the first place is that he is the only one who is in a position to take the necessary protective measures for overall protection of the premises, which he owns in whole and rents in part to individual tenants.
Reversed and remanded to the District Court for the determination of damages.
I respectfully dissent from the panel decision that the plaintiff has proved liability as a matter of law. My inability to join in that disposition of the case is based primarily in my disagreement as to what facts were proved at the trial of that issue by the court without a jury. In my view the panel opinion errs by overstating the facts which might be construed as being favorable to appellant and by failing to recognize gross deficiencies in appellant's proof, thereby applying a more strict standard of responsibility to the landlord than the opinion actually states to be the law.
One difficulty here is that the trial court sitting without a jury held as a matter of law that there was no rule requiring the operator of the apartment building to use due care to exclude intruders by locking doors or posting doormen at entrances so as to protect tenants against crimes committed by intruders and others. It never considered whether the facts proved liability if the duty did exist. Against such a procedural background the panel opinion here comes to a different conclusion on the duty owed by the landlord to its tenants and then proceeds to find defendant liable on the facts as a matter of law. This necessarily involves a de novo consideration of the facts on a cold record and subjects the result to all the imperfections inherent in any decision arrived at under such handicaps. Here, those handicaps are magnified by the fact that the case was tried to the court without a jury and this necessarily had some tendency to steer the facts toward the issues that became uppermost in the court's mind as the case progressed and away from the issues upon which the court now reverses the trial court. The result in my view is a record that cannot support the panel decision.
Central to the conclusion of the panel opinion is its frequent assertion, directly and inferentially stated, that numerous "assaults and robberies" had been occurring in the hallways of the building and hence "the risk of criminal assault and robbery on a tenant in the common hallways of the building was thus entirely predictable. * * *" (Emphasis added). In support of this conclusion the opinion states that "the same risk had been occurring with increasing frequency over a period of several months immediately prior to the incident giving rise to this case. * * *" (Emphasis added) and refers to 20 police reports of alleged offenses which had occurred in the building in the first ten months of 1966. But an examination of all 20 of these reports indicates that only one of them involved an assault and robbery. The rest were chiefly thefts. So the panel opinion is incorrect in basing its conclusion on the allegation that the landlord had "notice of repeated criminal assaults and robberies."2 (Emphasis added.) The sole prior instance of an assault and robbery occurred on September 6, 1966 at 8:10 P.M. in front of apartment #125 involving one Leona Sullivan. It was attempted by two men who fled when another tenant came out of an adjoining apartment. It seems elementary that one solitary instance of an assault and robbery is an insufficient base to support a finding that assaults and robberies are a "predictable risk" from which the landlord would have "every reason to expect like crimes to happen again." (Emphasis added.) One swallow just does not make a summer. Assaults of this character are not predictable from clandestine thefts. It is accordingly my conclusion that the panel opinion concludes too much from too little.
Also, in my view the record is deficient on the matter of notice to the landlord of any assaults. The landlord had notice of some thefts (inaccurately sometimes referred to as robberies) but the record does not support any notice of any assault. A stipulation as to the offenses only went to the fact that they were committed in the building, not that the landlord had notice of all of them. He did admit notice of some of them but there is no proof that the landlord had notice of the assault committed in the building upon Leona Sullivan. This was the only prior assault committed on the premises. Proof of notice was central to appellant's case and the absence of proof of notice I consider to be fatal. I find no proof the appellee had actual notice of such fact. As for constructive notice, that could have been proved by showing the knowledge of some of the employees, which was not done. Clearly, knowledge of some offenses by appellant was not notice to appellee (App.54). Neither were requests for improved security.
The evidence introduced by the plaintiff is also deficient in my opinion in not proving that the alleged negligence was the proximate cause of the assault or that it contributed to it in any way. Plaintiff's evidence did not negate that it was a tenant, guest or person properly on the property who committed the offense, and while the panel opinion throughout asserts that an "intruder" committed the offense, there is no proof of that fact. So plaintiff's evidence failed to prove a nexus between the alleged deficiencies of the appellee and the cause of any damage to appellant.
At the trial the court and counsel took frequent notice of well known factors affecting the quality of the accommodations in this and other areas of the city and of their effect on 1500 Massachusetts Avenue. It was recognized that Washington is a crime ridden city,4 that the area around 1500 Massachusetts Avenue in 1966 was different from areas on Connecticut and Wisconsin Avenues where "maybe the crime wave had not yet extended" (App.91) and that those "down in the center of town * * * were put on rather quick and active notice" of the crime wave. (App.92). In fact this thesis was central to appellant's case and it was so argued (App.105). All this indicated that the character of the surrounding area had been deteriorating, a fact of which the appellant was well aware as her testimony indicated she had knowledge of increasing crime in the area, that "as the years went by they were putting more and more offices into the building" and reducing the personnel services to tenants.
Obviously since a number of business offices occupied the lower floors, the fortress type security precautions the panel opinion finds to be required would be wholly out of the question because such offices require free public access. The degree of protection appellant seeks could only be afforded by the equivalent of policemen patrolling the corridors which even if it were practical for the upper apartment areas would be impractical for the floors housing business offices where this assault occurred.
The panel opinion attempts to liken the law involving this combination office-apartment building to the law relating to hotels and innkeepers,5 but even with respect to hotels the law recognizes that the reasonable care which an innkeeper must exercise for the safety and comfort of his guests varies with the grade and quality of the accommodation offered by the hotel.6 The panel cites the note in 70 A.L.R.2d 621 (1960) in support of its claim. That note revolves around a Minnesota case deciding that the operator of a beer establishment owes a duty to its patrons to exercise reasonable care to protect them from injury at the hands of an intoxicated patron on the premises. Such law has no application to the facts here. The A.L.R. note cited by the panel does make minor reference to hotels and assault and battery but the cases discussed therein give little or no support to the thesis of negligence advanced by the panel opinion. Kingen v. Weyant, 148 Cal. App. 2d 656, 307 P.2d 369 (1957) is cited for the principle that an innkeeper's duty is limited to the exercise of reasonable care and he is "liable only when he was negligent in receiving or harboring guests of known violent or vicious propensities." (Emphasis added). Annot., 70 A.L.R.2d, supra at 646. Gurren v. Casperson, 147 Wash. 257, 265 P. 472 (1928) is a similar case holding that a guest in a hotel assaulted by another guest who was intoxicated, after the guest had expressly warned the landlord and requested protection from this specific person, may recover his damages from the hotel owner. Fortney v. Hotel Rancroft, 5 Ill.App.2d 327, 125 N.E.2d 544 (1955) is another case described in the note. Therein, a new trial was ordered to determine the hotel's responsibility where an intruder, found in the guest's room when he returned after being out several hours, struck the guest and caused the loss of an eye. At issue was how the intruder had gained admission to the room with the key in the possession of the night clerk and without being noticed by the night clerk. These cases obviously have little or no application here.
Naturally, an innkeeper is not and cannot be an insurer of a guest or patron against personal injuries inflicted by another person on the premises, other than his servants or agents. Nevertheless, the proprietor of a place of business who holds it out to the public for entry for his business purposes, is subject to liability to guests who are upon the premises and who are injured by the harmful acts of third persons if, by the exercise of reasonable care, the proprietor could have discovered that such acts were being done or about to be done, and could have protected against the injury by controlling the conduct of the other patron. 2 Restatement, Torts, § 348 (1934 ed.); Central Theatres v. Wilkinson, 1944, 154 Fla. 589, 18 So. 2d 755; Hill v. Merrick, 1934, 147 Or. 244, 31 P.2d 663; 29 Am.Jur. 50, Innkeepers, § 62; Rawson v. Massachusetts Operating Co., 1952, 328 Mass. 558, 105 N.E.2d 220, 29 A.L.R.2d 907; Gartner v. Lombard Bros. (3d Cir. 1952), 197 F.2d 53.
A guest or patron of such an establishment has a right to rely on the belief that he is in an orderly house and that the operator, personally or by his delegated representative, is exercising reasonable care to the end that the doings in the house shall be orderly.
See also Gurren v. Casperson, 1928, 147 Wash. 257, 265 P. 472; Reilly v. 180 Club, Inc., 1951, 14 N.J.Super. 420, 82 A.2d 210. In addition, there are extensive annotations (106 A.L.R. 1003, and 70 A.L.R.2d 628, at 645). (Emphasis added).
The italicized portion of the quotation is indicative of the true holding of these cases with respect to innkeepers. It is that the landlord is liable if by the exercise of reasonable care he could have discovered that the offensive acts were being done or were about to be done and he could have protected against the injury by controlling the offender and failed to do so. The predictability of the offensive acts in the cited cases is much more immediate than is here present. Actually, the holding in the panel opinion extends the rule applicable to innkeepers to inordinate lengths and in my view to an unreasonable extent based as it is here upon a single assault and robbery over two months before.
Another deficiency I find in appellant's case is that she failed to prove the prevailing security standard for similar type apartments in the community at the time. This is another fatal defect in her proof. The panel opinion attempts to gloss over this deficiency by saying that it was caused by appellee's objections to the evidence and by the impatience of the judge. But the transcript indicates (App.55-62) that the proffered testimony was improper, largely hearsay, based on an insufficient foundation and that appellant's lawyer, after being helpfully advised by the court as to the proper procedure and the proper type of witnesses to prove such facts purposely waived any right to introduce such evidence when he stated, "I do not think it [the evidence of the practice in the area] is that material to the issue here, Your Honor." Also, the appellant who was her only witness on the point indicated that she only had personal knowledge of the practices at one other apartment at the time in 1966 when this assault occurred, and that was obviously insufficient to prove the necessary standard prevailing in the area. The court also stated, "I will allow the question" as to the practice in the building where appellant was then residing and she so testified as to this single location; but that was obviously insufficient to prove the prevailing standard in the area. So appellant's case is deficient in this vital respect since the absence of any evidence (or proffer thereof) is not corrected by trying to blame the defendant and the court for not admitting what was obviously improper (hearsay) evidence. A negligence case must still be based on some evidence or proffer thereof.
As for the claim that appellant was led to believe she would get the same standard of protection in 1966 that was furnished in 1959, there is obviously nothing to this point. She was not led to expect that. She personally observed the changes which occurred in this respect. They were obvious to her each day of her life. And since her original lease had terminated and her tenancy in 1966 was on a month to month basis, whatever contract existed was created at the beginning of the month and since there was no evidence of any alteration in the security precautions during the current month, there is no basis for any damage claim based on contract.
The panel opinion is an excellent argument for a high degree of security in apartments and many of its contentions have considerable weight to them but in my opinion they overstate the security that can reasonably be afforded. The hysteria of apartment dwellers in an inner city plagued with crime8 is understandable but they are not any more exposed there than they are on the streets or in office buildings and they cannot expect the landlord to furnish the equivalent of police protection that is not available from the duly constituted government in the locality.9 In my opinion the decision in Goldberg v. Housing Authority of Newark, 38 N.J. 578, 186 A.2d 291, 10 A.L.R.2d 595 (1962) answers all appellant's arguments. It is just too much, absent a contractual agreement, to require or expect a combination office-apartment building such as is involved here to provide police patrol protection or its equivalent in the block-long, well-lighted passageways. Yet nothing short of that will meet the second guessing standard of protection the panel opinion practically directs. If tenants expect such protection, they can move to apartments where it is available and presumably pay a higher rental, but it is a mistake in my judgment to hold an office-apartment building to such a requirement when the tenant knew for years that such protection was not being afforded.
In its overzealous attempt to assist the apartment dweller, the panel opinion is forcing a contrary result. The panel opinion calls for "protection" of the tenant by the landlord without describing the degree thereof. The stated standard is thus vague, but in the light of the facts of this case (see footnote 2 relying upon plaintiff's allegation that appellee "failed to hire sufficient number of guards"), it is an extremely high standard that borders on insuring tenants that the corridors of office-apartment buildings (and hence many apartment buildings) will not be used for the commission of criminal offenses. Owners of apartments in their own self interest will be required to view this standard, particularly in light of our jury trial practices, as being incapable of assured compliance and thus be forced to contract against such unreasonable liability (both as to character and amount) by contracting for exculpatory provisions in leases.10 Thus tenants will get less instead of more protection and the panel opinion by imposing an unreasonable standard in this case is not rendering any real service to reasonable landlord-tenant relations.
It is my conclusion that appellant did not sustain her burden of proof that the owner of the apartment building failed to exercise reasonable care and I would affirm the decision of the very distinguished and learned trial judge. Accordingly, I dissent.
Q. Now in your talks with Miss Bloom were you aware between January of 1966 and November of 1966 when you were assaulted of any other assaults or crimes within this apartment house other than what you have already testified to about police cars being present?
A. It is hard to pin them down to the specific date but there were so many happening. My girl friend's apartment was broken into, five of them within an hour. I don't know what date that was.
Mr. Ahern: I stand corrected, Your Honor.
We also note that on brief, and at oral argument, 1500 Massachusetts Avenue never challenged the assertions of the appellant regarding the frequency of assaults and other crimes being perpetrated against the tenants on their premises. With the record in this posture, we can only conclude that what was alleged and stipulated was what actually occurred.
The plaintiff testified that she had returned to her apartment after leaving work at 10:00 PM. We are in agreement with the trial court that her assailant was an intruder See the court's comment in note 24, infra.
That such intruders did enter apartments from the hallways is substantiated by the Police reports which appear in the Record. In a number of instances doors are described as having been forced; in another instance, a tenant surprised a man standing in his front hallway; and there are still more instances of female tenants being awakened in the early morning hours to find an intruder entering their front doors. We also take notice of the fact that this apartment building is of the high rise type, with no easily accessible means of entry on the floors above the street level except by the hallways.
Applebaum v. Kidwell, 56 App.D.C. 311, 12 F.2d 846 (1926); Goldberg v. Housing Authority of Newark, 38 N.J. 578, 186 A.2d 291, 10 A.L.R.3d 595 (1962);but see Ramsay v. Morrissette, D.C.App., 252 A.2d 509 (1969) and Kendall v. Gore Properties, supra, note 5.
Id. 138 U.S.App.D.C. at 372, 428 F.2d at 1074, (emphasis added).
Id. 138 U.S.App.D.C. at 373, 428 F.2d at 1075.
The landlord's duty to repair was held to include the leased premises in Whetzel v. Jess Fisher Management Co., 108 U.S.App.D.C. 385, 282 F.2d 943 (1960). In that case, we held that the Housing Regulations altered the old common law rule, and further, that the injured tenant had a cause of action in tort against the landlord for his failure to discharge his duty to repair the premises. Our recent decision in Kanelos v. Kettler, 132 U.S.App.D.C. 133, 406 F.2d 951 (1968), reaffirms the position taken in Whetzel.
Gurren v. Casperon, 147 Wash. 257, 265 P. 472 (1928)See also Fortney v. Hotel Rancroft, Inc., 5 Ill.App.2d 327, 125 N.E.2d 544 (1955).
See: Central of Georgia R. Co. v. Hopkins, 18 Ga.App. 230, 89 S.E. 186 (1916); Martincich v. Guardian Cab Co., 10 N.Y.S.2d 308 (1938, City Ct. N.Y.); and Callender v. Wilson, La.App., 162 So. 2d 203, writ refused 246 La. 351, 164 So. 2d 352 (1964).
See also Amoruso v. New York City Transit Authority, 12 A.D.2d 11, 207 N.Y.S.2d 855 (1960); and Dean v. Hotel Greenwich Corp., 21 Misc.2d 702, 193 N.Y.S.2d 712 (1959).
"We have heretofore made clear as to apartment houses, the reasons which underlie the landlord's duty under modern conditions and which, as to various hazards call for at least `reasonable or ordinary care, which means reasonably safe conduct, but there is no sufficient reason for requiring less.' True, the landlord does not become a guarantor of the safety of his tenant. But, if he knows, or in the exercise of ordinary care ought to know, of a possibly dangerous situation and fails to take such steps as an ordinarily prudent person, in view of existing circumstances, would have exercised to avoid injury to his tenant, he may be liable. (citations omitted)"
The language that the District of Columbia Court of Appeals quoted from Kendall signals the extension of a rule theretofore applied only to injuries caused by defects or obstacles in areas under the landlord's control (see Levine v. Katz, supra), to criminal acts of third parties. By our decision today, we merely amplify and refine our reasoning in Kendall.
Javins v. First National Realty Corp.,supra, note 7, 138 U.S.App.D.C. 377, 428 F.2d 1079. With reference to some duties imposed by law upon the landlord for the benefit of the tenant, it may not be possible for landlords to contract out of their obligations. It has been held that a lease clause is invalid if it would insulate landlords "from the consequences of violations of their duties to the public under both the common law and the District of Columbia Building Code * * *." Tenants Council of Tiber Island — Carrolsburg Square v. DeFranceaux, 305 F. Supp. 560, 563 (D.D.C. 1969).
For the imposition of more stringent obligations constituting a standard of reasonable care in the innkeeper-guest relationship, see Fortney v. Hotel Rancroft, Inc., 5 Ill.App.2d 327, 125 N.E.2d 544 (1955).
See text at 478, supra.
Q. Is it also correct that this apartment building also houses office apartments?
A. As the years went by they were putting more and more offices into the building, yes, sir.
Q. What type of offices would they be?
A. Well, I understood they were supposed to be professional offices because I tried to get my name listed once.
Q. Irrespective of whether you tried to get your name listed or not, did you observe the offices?
A. Yes, I worked for some of them.
Q. What type of organizations had their offices there?
A. Manufacturing representatives; there was a lawyer's office, maybe two; there were some engineers; there were some tour salesmen. That is all I can think of right now.
Q. So that there would be then in the course of a normal day clients going in and out of the lawyers' offices or customers going in and out of the other type offices, would that be correct?
Q. And they would be able to walk in even if there was a doorman there?
Q. And one would only speculate as to whether or not anyone could ever leave or not leave, isn't that also correct?
A. What do you mean, speculate if one could leave or not leave?
THE COURT: Well, we assume the general public would come into any office building or in any big apartment house.
THE COURT: The point is though that an intruder who commits this kind of an assault is apt to act a little different from the rest of the public although it does not always follow, you never know. Of course an intruder is not likely to come in through a public entrance either.
To this we add our own comment that it is unlikely in any case that a patron of one of the businesses, even if disposed to criminal conduct, would have waited for five hours after the usual closing time to perpetrate his crime — especially one of a violent nature. Further, although it is not essential to our decision in this case, we point out that it is not at all clear that a landlord who permits a portion of his premises to be used for business purposes and the remainder for apartments would be free from liability to a tenant injured by the criminal act of a lingering patron of one of the businesses. If the risk of such injury is foreseeable, then the landlord may be liable for failing to take reasonable measures to protect his tenant from it.
We note parenthetically that no argument regarding any change in the character of the building or its tenants was pursued on appeal.
In this particular the panel opinion ignores the actual police reports to which the stipulation referred and which speak for themselves. They were all admitted in evidence and only one reported an assault; that on Leona Sullivan.
This court is well aware of the high level of crime in various areas of Washington. About two-thirds of our cases on appeal presently involve criminal offenses. Also the daily newspapers are full of the details of various crimes. The Washington Post of June 19, 1970, p. B 5, stated: "Asleep in rooms, 5 guests robbed in downtown hotel." The story referred to three rooms on the ninth floor of the Statler Hilton Hotel, one of the most prestigious in the city. This is five times as many robberies as had occurred at 1500 Massachusetts Avenue prior to this case. Under the panel opinion, now the Statler Hilton Hotel would practically be required to patrol the upper hotel rooms. The Post news story also reported 21 daylight robberies, 4 assaults and 8 thefts, all of which occurred before 6 P.M. This is a fairly typical day in Washington.
Plaintiff's complaint here is partly based on the claim that the landlord was required to maintain a reasonable number of guards. The allegation of the complaint alleged that appellee was negligent in not "taking reasonable precautions in the evening hours of maintaining a reasonable number of guards upon the premises so as to protect your plaintiff in her person and in her property." (Emphasis added.) To require apartment landlords to employ guards to protect tenants against criminal depredations would be very costly and raise many troublesome questions. How much training should they have? Should such guards be armed? What would be their liability and that of the landlord if they killed an alleged offender in the commission of a criminal act? When duly appointed and trained city policemen are subjected to grand jury indictment for killing criminals caught in the act, the liability and exposure of an apartment house guard and his landlord to criminal and civil process under similar circumstances could be very substantial.
Tenants Council v. DeFranceaux, 305 F. Supp. 560 (D.D.C. 1969) is not to the contrary. It dealt with an exculpatory clause for swimming pool facilities which had been represented by the landlord to be available to prospective tenants without additional charge. Under such circumstances the District Court found the requirement that tenants agree to the exculpatory clause in order to gain the use of the pool facilities to be contrary to public policy and without consideration.
The act of a third person in committing an intentional tort or crime is a superseding cause of harm to another resulting therefrom, although the actor's negligent conduct created a situation which afforded an opportunity to the third person to commit such a tort or crime, unless the actor at the time of his negligent conduct realized or should have realized the likelihood that such a situation might be created, and that a third person might avail himself of the opportunity to commit such a tort or crime.
I fail to see that the conduct of the appellee created any temptation to third persons to commit criminal acts on the premises. What the panel talks about as risk in the building is nothing more than a reduction of the general risk that prevails in the community.
Under the doctrine of negligent security, a landlord must protect tenants from criminal acts by third parties that are reasonably foreseeable.
At 10:15 P.M. in an evening, Sarah Kline was assaulted and robbed in the common area of the apartment complex where she lived. This was a combination office-apartment building at 1500 Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C., which was known to have been the site of several previous violent crimes. Its owner, Apartment Corporation, had stopped using a doorman and had failed to install electronic security devices, despite its awareness of the criminal activity.
Kline sought damages from Apartment Corporation through a personal injury claim based on negligent security. Her complaint was dismissed in the federal district court, which ruled that the landlord did not owe this type of duty to her as a tenant.
When there is a foreseeable risk that tenants will be victimized by criminal activities, a landlord must take reasonable care to reduce that risk as long as it is aware that crimes have repeatedly happened in common areas under its control, there is reason to expect that crimes will recur, and the landlord is the only party in a position to reduce the risk. Since city policemen cannot be expected to patrol the area, and tenants cannot be held responsible for retaining their own security, the responsibility falls to the landlord to provide security in areas such as hallways and garages. The type of preventive measures that may be appropriate will vary according to the situation. In this case, the apartment corporation had specifically contracted with the tenant to provide protections such as those that it had failed to provide. Thus, providing those protections fell within its duty of care.
Individuals generally have no duty to protect other individuals who are not dependent on them from attacks by third parties. A landlord-tenant relationship is one of the exceptions to this rule, however, since only the landlord is capable of providing effective security for the area.

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