Property Manager Not Responsible For Everything
Partner Skylar Stewart and Chief Appellate Counsel Ashley Leasure obtained a summary judgment in favor of our client, who was the property manager of a plaza in Pinellas County, Florida.
This case stemmed from a shooting during an unsanctioned charity event held in the rear parking lot of a plaza in St. Petersburg in October 2021, in which five people were injured and one person died.
The plaintiffs alleged that as the property manager of the plaza, our client, owed a duty to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition and should have guarded against reasonably foreseeable criminal activity; plaintiff attempted to hold our client vicariously liable for the acts of the property owner, the tenant who hosted the event, the event organizers, and security personnel.
Plaintiffs’ strongest argument centered on a phone call the property manager received on the day of the event from a residential neighbor, reporting sounds of people and music on the property. The property manager instructed the caller to follow up if the activity did not disperse within a few hours. The property manager missed additional attempts to notify the property manager that the event was getting out of hand. The plaintiff attempted to seize on this as evidence that the property manager had a duty to act, but the defense successfully argued that this limited, secondhand information was insufficient to establish such a duty, particularly given that the tenant had intentionally concealed the nature and existence of the event.
The facts showed there was no history of crime at the property and the property manager had no knowledge of the event. The management agreement did not give our client control over the premises and did not delegate any security responsibilities. Moreover, the tenant admitted under oath that it deliberately concealed the event because the property management would have immediately canceled it had they known about it. Ultimately the Court granted summary judgement on our client’s behalf determining the property manager had no liability.
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