Opinion ID: 2399413
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: maryland cases regarding common areas

Text: [W]here a landlord leases separate portions of his property to different tenants and reserves under his control the passageways and stairways, and other parts of the property for the common use of all the tenants[,] he must then exercise ordinary care and diligence to maintain the retained portions in a reasonably safe condition. [3] Langley Park Apts. v. Lund Adm'r, 234 Md. 402, 407, 199 A.2d 620, 623 (1964). Our recognition of landlord liability in common areas is generally premised on the control a landlord maintains over the common areas. This duty stems in part from the responsibility engendered in the landlord by his having extended an invitation, express or implied, to use the portion of the property retained by him. Landay, 220 Md. at 27, 150 A.2d at 741. This common area exception has been recognized in multi-unit residential facilities: `[ Where ] the construction of tenement or apartment houses, intended for the habitation of many tenants, ... which situations differ[ed] entirely from any comprehended by the rural conditions of habitations at the common law, the courts have found it necessary to recognize the novel housing requisite incident to modern life, by treating hallways and stairs as common ways or appurtenances, kept and maintained by the landlord, for the purpose of affording reasonable entrances and exits to and from the demised premises; and for a failure to reasonably maintain which, in the event of damage to occupants and others lawfully using the premises, the landlord has by the general trend of authority been made liable.` (Italics supplied here). Sezzin v. Stark, 187 Md. 241, 250, 49 A.2d 742, 746 (1946)(quoting with approval Bernstein v. Karr, 22 N.J. Misc. 1, 34 A.2d 651, 653 (Cir.Ct.1943), in turn quoting Barthelmess v. Bergamo, 103 N.J.L. 397, 135 A. 794, 794 (1927)). This rationale is also applicable where the premises are leased for business purposes. This Court, thus, has sustained landlord liability for injuries that occur in common areas within the landlord's control where it can be shown that the landlord knew or had reason to know the danger existed. See, e.g., Macke Laundry Serv. Co. v. Weber, 267 Md. 426, 432-33, 298 A.2d 27, 31 (1972) (holding landlord liable for injuries sustained by child of tenant in apartment complex's laundry room); Langley Park Apts., 234 Md. at 410, 199 A.2d at 624 (holding landlord liable for injuries sustained by tenant resulting from accumulation of snow on a common approach to multiple family dwellings); see also Scott v. Watson, 278 Md. 160, 169, 359 A.2d 548, 554 (1976) (noting in a certified question case that a landlord may be liable for tenant's death resulting from criminal activity that occurred in apartment's underground parking garage). For example, in Langley Park Apts., supra, a tenant sued her landlord for injuries sustained when she slipped and fell on a patch of ice in the common area of a large scale multiple housing development owned by the defendant. After reviewing a variety of approaches taken in other jurisdictions, including one in which there was no duty on the part of the landlord ... to remove from the [common area] the snow which naturally accumulated thereon, this Court held that the accumulation of ice or snow upon the common approaches to tenement houses or multi-family apartment buildings may result in imposing on the landlord liability for injuries due to it. Langley Park Apts., 234 Md. at 405, 410, 199 A.2d at 612, 624. We specifically limited this potential liability to situations where the landlord knew, or in the exercise of reasonable care should have known, of the existence of a dangerous condition and failed to act within a reasonable time thereafter to protect against injury by reason of it. Langley Park Apts., 234 Md. at 410, 199 A.2d at 624. In Windsor v. Goldscheider, 248 Md. 220, 221, 236 A.2d 16, 17 (1967), we reversed a granting of a directed verdict in favor of the defendant/landlord where the tenant was cut when he grabbed the top of a fence which ran along a path between the street and the apartment complex. In remanding the case for a new trial, we noted that [i]t is settled in Maryland that the mere ownership of land does not render one liable for injuries sustained by persons entering thereon, but where a landlord leases separate portions of his property to different tenants and reserves other parts of the property for the common use of all tenants, he must then exercise ordinary care and diligence to maintain the retained portions in a reasonably safe condition. Windsor, 248 Md. at 222, 236 A.2d at 17. Similarly, in Macke, a three-year-old boy was severely injured in the laundry room of the apartment complex where he lived when he put his hand into the drive mechanism in the back of a clothes dryer in an attempt to stop it. 267 Md. at 427-28, 298 A.2d at 28. The child and his mother brought suit claiming that the owner of the dryer and the manager of the complex failed to replace a guard which normally shielded the drive mechanism. Macke, 267 Md. at 427, 433-34, 298 A.2d at 28, 31-32. This Court affirmed a jury verdict in favor of the plaintiffs because, inter alia, when a landlord sets aside areas for the use of his tenants in common, he owes a duty of reasonable and ordinary care to keep the premises safe for his invitees. Macke, 267 Md. at 429, 298 A.2d at 29. Likewise, in Scott, a case that came to us as a certified question from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, the plaintiff's decedent, a tenant in the defendant/landlord's apartment complex, was shot to death in the apartment complex's underground parking garage. 278 Md. at 162, 359 A.2d at 550. The plaintiff sued the landlord claiming that the landlord's failure to provide adequate security proximately caused the decedent's death. In answering the questions certified to us, we first held that, just as a private person is under no special duty to protect another from criminal acts by a third person, in the absence of statutes, or of a special relationship, a landlord has no special duty to protect tenants from the criminal acts of third parties on the landlord's premises. Scott, 278 Md. at 168, 359 A.2d at 552. We then addressed whether a duty arose where defendant had knowledge of increasing criminal activity on the premises. Scott, 278 Md. at 166, 359 A.2d at 552. We noted that a landlord who has set aside areas for the use of his tenants in common owes them a duty of reasonable and ordinary care to keep the premises safe.... `[H]e is ... obliged to use reasonable diligence and ordinary care to keep the portion retained under his control in a reasonably safe condition.' Scott, 278 Md. at 165, 359 A.2d at 552 (quoting Elmar Gardens, Inc. v. Odell, 227 Md. 454, 457, 177 A.2d 263, 265 (1962)). We concluded: The duty of a landlord to exercise reasonable care for the safety of his tenants in common areas under his control is sufficiently flexible to be applied to cases involving criminal activity without making the landlord an insurer of his tenant's safety. If the landlord knows, or should know, of criminal activity against persons or property in the common areas, he then has a duty to take reasonable measures, in view of the existing circumstances to eliminate the conditions contributing to the criminal activity. Scott, 278 Md. at 169, 359 A.2d at 554. In each of these cases, this Court required that the landlord have had some type of control, e.g., the landlord's control over common areas, and that the landlord have knowledge or reason to know that a danger was posed to those in the common areas. In the instant case, both Petitioners Shields and Johnson were injured in the common area of the Joint Venture strip mall. Shields was attacked as she tried to return to her car when Trouble burst through the door of Thomas's office. Johnson was injured as he accompanied one of his customers to pick up her car. Respondents seem to concede that these attacks occurred in the parking lot of the strip mall but contend that there was no evidence presented that the parking lot was a common area. We disagree. First, as we noted above, we are obligated in this appeal to look at the facts in the light most favorable to the Petitioners. See, e.g., Martens Chevrolet, 292 Md. at 331, 439 A.2d at 536. The evidence presented at trial in this matter included the introduction of photographs which show the parking area of the strip mall. Johnson testified that one of these photographs shows the bay area, you know, and the common area and that the other photograph shows the lot, you know, with a lot of trash and junk in the parking lot. Although we do not comment on the weight of this evidence, we are persuaded that from the photographs and the accompanying testimony that a jury could have concluded that the parking lot was a common area. [4] Respondents further argue that there was no evidence Trouble was being kept in the common area. This, however, misses the point entirely. The issue is not whether Trouble was being kept in the common area, but rather whether Trouble's presence posed a threat to those in the common area.