Novikova v. Greenbriar Owners Corp

In Novikova v. Greenbriar Owners Corp., 258 A.D.2d 149 [2d Dept. 1999] an unknown person attempted to steal the decedent's wife's purse in the entry vestibule to a building; the decedent was shot in a struggle to ward off the attacker. In finding no liability, the Second Department observed that the entrance vestibule "is by its nature necessarily accessible to the public." (Id.) That fact limited the "duty and ability" of the owner to provide security precautions. The court, in addressing the duties of a landowner, stated, as follows: Under the common law, the owner or possessor of property has the general duty to take reasonable measures to maintain his or her property in a reasonably safe way ... In Nallan v. Helmsley-Spear, Inc. [50 N.Y.2d 507, 429 N.Y.S.2d 606, 407 N.E.2d 451], the Court of Appeals first addressed the duty of an owner or possessor of property to take precautions against the criminal acts of third parties. The Nallan court, citing to the Restatement, Torts 2d, 344, which defined the liability of an owner of business premises when there is a foreseeable danger of harm to visitors from the criminal acts of third parties, held that a "natural corollary" of the above-stated general common-law duty to maintain property in a reasonably safe condition was the "obligation to take reasonable precautionary measures to minimize the risk [of criminal acts] and make the premises safe for the visiting public" ... In Miller v. State of New York, 62 N.Y.2d 506, 478 N.Y.S.2d 829, 467 N.E.2d 493 ... the court distilled the holding of Nallan as imposing on the owner or possessor of land "a duty to maintain minimal security measures, related to a specific building itself, in the face of foreseeable criminal intrusions upon tenants" (id., at 151). "To establish foreseeability, the criminal conduct at issue must be shown to be reasonably predictable based on the prior occurrence of the same or similar criminal activity at a location sufficiently proximate to the subject location" ( Novikova v. Greenbriar Owners Corp., supra, 258 AD2d, at 153).