Negligent Security Cases Need A Houston Texas Premises Liability Attorney

Law Offices of Robert Rodriguez > Personal Injury > Negligent Security Cases Need A Houston Texas Premises Liability Attorney

What is Negligent Security

Security cameras on a wall.A man is murdered in the parking lot of a bar. A woman is sexually assaulted in her apartment. Another woman is sexually assaulted in her hotel room or a conference room. Is the bar owner liable? The apartment complex? The hotel? The answer may be yes.

These cases are very different from slip and fall cases and fit into a category of premises liability cases referred to as Timberwalk cases, so called because of a Texas Supreme Court case decided in 1998 styled Cain Vs. Timberwalk Apartment Partner. In that case, a woman named Tammy Cain was sexually assaulted inside her apartment by a man who entered through a sliding glass door. She sued the apartment complex and the property management company on a theory that they should be held liable for her damages because they had failed to provide adequate security to protect her from a foreseeable criminal act. The court, in siding with Ms. Cain, reasoned that although the law does not generally impose a duty to protect another from the criminal acts of a third person, there is an exception for one who controls the premises. In that situation, the owner and/or manager has “a duty to use ordinary care to protect its invitees from the criminal acts of another if it knows or has reason to know of an unreasonable and foreseeable risk of harm to the invitee”.

To prove its case, Plaintiff’s attorney should have evidence to show that the owner/manager knew or should have known that there had been similar crimes committed on, or near, the premise and that they failed to take proper measures to protect its tenants or invitees. These measures can include lighting, gates, adequate fencing, security guards, notices to guests and tenants advising of recent crimes and advising them to be aware of their surroundings, and proper locks on doors and windows. As to what constitutes knowledge of similar crimes on the part of the owner/manager, the Timberwalk court noted proximity, recency, frequency, similarity, and publicity or notoriety of the earlier crimes as important evidence for a jury to consider.

At the Law Offices of Robert Rodriguez, we have successfully prosecuted such cases and are familiar with the experts needed and the proof required in order to win a verdict and keep it on appeal. We have experts at our disposal who can study the crime statistics in the area in question and assess the business establishment’s efforts to protect its guests, in order to determine whether we have a case we can feel confident in taking to a jury.

If you have been sexually or physically assaulted, or if a loved one was murdered on a commercial premises, such as an entertainment venue, hotel or apartment complex, contact us at the Law Offices of Robert Rodriguez for a free consultation.

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