PREMISES LIABILITY | 2026-10-21

Premises Security and the Duty to Protect Against Third-Party Crime in California: When a Landlord, Business, or Property Owner Can Be Liable for an Assault, Robbery, or Shooting on Their Property

California property owners are not insurers of their visitors’ safety, but they can be liable when a foreseeable criminal attack causes injury and reasonable security measures would have prevented it. The Supreme Court’s decisions in Ann M. and Delgado set a sliding-scale foreseeability test that ties the burden of the duty to how predictable the harm was — a framework that decides nearly every negligent-security case.

When a person is assaulted, robbed, or shot in a parking lot, an apartment complex, a bar, or a store, one of the first questions is whether the property owner or business could have prevented it — and whether the law holds them responsible. In California, property owners and occupiers owe a duty to

Violent crime that injures a customer, tenant, or visitor on commercial or residential property raises a civil question distinct from the criminal prosecution of the attacker: did the property owner or business fail to provide the security that reasonable care required, and did that failure enable the harm? California law recognizes that owners and occupiers of land sometimes must take steps to protect people from the criminal conduct of others — but it has also drawn careful limits so that owners are not made guarantors of safety against unpredictable violence. The governing framework is built on duty, foreseeability, and the balancing of burdens against risks, and it decides the outcome of nearly every negligent-security case in the state.

The General Duty of Landowners

California abolished the rigid common-law categories of invitee, licensee, and trespasser in Rowland v. Christian (1968) 69 Cal.2d 108, replacing them with a general duty of ordinary care in the management of property. That duty is codified in principle by Civil Code § 1714, which makes everyone responsible for injury caused to another by want of ordinary care in the management of his property or person. A possessor of land must therefore use reasonable care to keep the premises reasonably safe for those who come on it, and that can include taking reasonable steps to protect against known or reasonably foreseeable dangers — including, in appropriate cases, the criminal acts of third parties.

Why Third-Party Crime Is Different

Liability for a third party’s intentional crime is treated with special caution for two reasons. First, the immediate cause of the harm is the deliberate criminal act of someone else, not the owner’s own conduct, so the law must decide when it is fair to hold the owner responsible for failing to prevent another’s crime. Second, the most effective preventive measures — security guards, surveillance systems, lighting, fencing, access control — carry real economic and social costs. California courts have accordingly refused to impose a blanket duty to guard against all possible crime, insisting instead that the existence and scope of any duty to provide specific security measures be tied to how foreseeable the particular kind of harm was.

Ann M. and the Demand for Heightened Foreseeability

In Ann M. v. Pacific Plaza Shopping Center (1993) 6 Cal.4th 666, an employee at a shopping-center store was raped by an unidentified assailant and sued the center for failing to provide security guards. The California Supreme Court held that the burdensome measure of hiring security guards is generally imposed only where the harm was highly foreseeable — foreseeability ordinarily established by evidence of prior similar incidents of violent crime on the premises or in the immediate vicinity. Because the record lacked such prior similar incidents, the duty to provide guards did not arise. Ann M. established the key principle that the scope of the duty is calibrated to the degree of foreseeability, and that the most costly measures demand the strongest showing that the specific type of harm was predictable.

Delgado and the Sliding Scale

In Delgado v. Trax Bar & Grill (2005) 36 Cal.4th 224, a bar patron was assaulted after a bar employee observed a brewing confrontation but failed to intervene. The Supreme Court clarified and refined the framework into an explicit sliding scale: the greater the foreseeability of harm, the greater the burden of preventive measures the law will impose; conversely, the more onerous the measure (such as hiring guards), the higher the degree of foreseeability required before a duty to provide it arises. Critically, Delgado recognized that minimally burdensome measures — such as a bar’s own staff taking simple steps to protect a patron from an imminent, observed threat — can be required on a lesser showing of foreseeability, even without prior similar incidents. Delgado thus made clear that Ann M.’s prior-similar-incidents requirement applies most forcefully to the costliest interventions, not to all security-related duties.

The Rowland Factors and the Duty Analysis

Whether a duty exists in a given case is a question of law analyzed under the Rowland v. Christian factors, which include the foreseeability of harm, the degree of certainty the plaintiff suffered injury, the closeness of the connection between the defendant’s conduct and the injury, the moral blame attached to the conduct, the policy of preventing future harm, the burden on the defendant and consequences to the community of imposing a duty, and the availability and cost of insurance. In negligent-security cases, foreseeability and burden do the heaviest lifting, and the sliding scale of Ann M. and Delgado is essentially the courts’ way of weighing those two factors against each other to decide both whether a duty exists and what it requires.

What Counts as a “Prior Similar Incident”

For the most burdensome measures, plaintiffs typically must show prior similar incidents of violent crime — but courts look at both similarity and proximity. Incidents need not be identical, but they should be close enough in nature and location to make the specific harm foreseeable; a history of car burglaries, for example, may not make a violent sexual assault foreseeable. Evidence can include police reports, crime statistics for the area, prior incidents on the premises, the nature of the business, and the character of the surrounding neighborhood. The question is whether a reasonable owner, armed with what was known or knowable, would have anticipated the type of criminal conduct that occurred and recognized the need for the preventive measure the plaintiff says was missing.

Causation: The Hard Part of Negligent-Security Cases

Even where a duty and its breach are shown, the plaintiff must prove causation — that the missing security measure would have prevented or mitigated the attack. This is often the most contested issue, because a defendant will argue that a determined criminal would have acted regardless of guards, cameras, or lighting. California applies the substantial factor test for causation (reflected in CACI 430), and plaintiffs frequently use security experts to show how adequate measures would have deterred or interrupted the crime. Because the attacker’s intervening criminal act is involved, plaintiffs must establish that the owner’s negligence was a substantial factor and that the criminal conduct was within the scope of the foreseeable risk the owner failed to guard against — not a superseding, unforeseeable cause.

Landlords, Businesses, and Special Relationships

Duties to protect against third-party crime often arise from a special relationship — landlord-tenant, business-customer, innkeeper-guest, common carrier-passenger. A landlord may owe tenants a duty to maintain reasonable security in common areas (locks, lighting, gates) where crime is foreseeable; a business owes its patrons reasonable care while they are on the premises; a parking-structure operator may owe duties tied to the known risks of that environment. The existence of the special relationship supports the duty; the sliding-scale foreseeability analysis then defines its scope. An owner who has actual notice of a specific, imminent threat (as in Delgado) may owe a duty to take simple protective steps even absent a long history of prior crimes.

What California Victims Should Do

A victim injured by crime on another’s property should act quickly to preserve evidence: the physical condition of the premises (lighting, locks, broken gates, camera placement), any surveillance footage (which is often overwritten within days), incident and police reports, and the history of prior crimes at the location, which may require subpoenas to police and the property owner. Because the analysis turns on technical questions of foreseeability, burden, and causation — and because owners and their insurers vigorously dispute these cases — early investigation and experienced counsel are important. A successful claim can recover medical expenses, lost earnings, and pain and suffering, and in cases of egregious security failures may support additional theories. Victims should be aware that claims are subject to California’s two-year personal-injury limitations period (Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1), and shorter deadlines apply against public entities.

Common Settings for Negligent-Security Claims

Negligent-security claims recur in identifiable environments, each with its own foreseeability profile. Bars and nightclubs, where alcohol and crowds elevate the risk of violence, frequently generate claims when staff ignore escalating confrontations — the exact situation in Delgado. Apartment complexes produce claims when broken gates, failed locks, or dark common areas enable assaults on tenants, especially where management knew of prior break-ins or attacks. Shopping centers and parking structures, as in Ann M., raise questions about guards, lighting, and surveillance in large, semi-public spaces. Hotels and motels owe heightened duties to guests under the innkeeper relationship. Retail stores, gas stations, and ATMs in high-crime areas can be liable where robberies were foreseeable and basic measures were absent. In each setting, the analysis is the same — special relationship, foreseeability on the sliding scale, breach, and causation — but the type of foreseeable harm and the reasonable response differ with the environment, which is why courts examine the specific character and history of the particular location rather than applying a one-size rule.

Comparative Fault and the Role of the Criminal

A frequent defense argument is that the criminal attacker, not the property owner, caused the harm — and California’s comparative-fault system allows fault to be allocated among all responsible actors, including the intentional wrongdoer. However, the fact that a third party committed an intentional crime does not automatically relieve a negligent owner: where the owner’s duty was precisely to guard against that kind of foreseeable criminal conduct, the crime is within the scope of the risk the owner negligently failed to address and is not a superseding cause. Juries may nonetheless apportion responsibility, and because non-economic damages are several only under Proposition 51 (Civil Code § 1431.2), the percentage of fault assigned to the owner directly limits its share of pain-and-suffering damages. Plaintiffs therefore must build a record showing the owner’s failure was a substantial factor and that the attack was a foreseeable consequence of inadequate security, while anticipating the defense effort to shift the bulk of fault to the absent, usually judgment-proof, criminal. This interplay makes the quality of the security expert’s analysis and the documented crime history pivotal to the damages the owner ultimately bears.

Damages Available to Victims of Inadequate Security

A victim who proves a negligent-security claim may recover the full range of California personal-injury damages. Economic damages include past and future medical and psychological treatment, lost wages, and lost earning capacity, and remain jointly and severally collectible from any liable defendant. Non-economic damages — for the physical pain, emotional trauma, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life that often follow a violent assault — are frequently the largest component, particularly where the attack caused lasting psychological injury; under Proposition 51 these are allocated by each defendant’s share of fault. In cases involving especially egregious security failures, or conduct amounting to a conscious disregard of a known danger, a plaintiff may seek punitive damages under Civil Code § 3294, though the standard is demanding. Where the victim dies, the family may bring a wrongful-death action under Code of Civil Procedure § 377.60. Because the value of these cases turns on documented injuries and the apportionment of fault, careful development of both the medical record and the foreseeability evidence is essential to a full recovery. Insurers for property owners and businesses typically defend these claims vigorously, disputing both the existence of a duty and the causal link between the missing security measure and the attack, so victims benefit from counsel who can retain qualified security experts, subpoena the location’s crime history before footage and records disappear, and present the foreseeability and causation evidence in the structured way the Ann M. and Delgado framework demands.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can a property owner be liable for a crime committed by someone else?

Sometimes. California owners owe a duty of ordinary care (Civil Code § 1714; Rowland v. Christian) and, where there is a special relationship and the crime was foreseeable, can be liable for failing to provide reasonable security that would have prevented a third party’s attack. But owners are not insurers of safety, and the duty’s scope depends on foreseeability under Ann M. and Delgado.

What did Ann M. v. Pacific Plaza Shopping Center decide?

In 6 Cal.4th 666 (1993), the California Supreme Court held that the burdensome measure of hiring security guards is generally required only where violent crime was highly foreseeable — ordinarily shown by prior similar incidents on or near the premises. Without such evidence, no duty to provide guards arose.

How does Delgado change the Ann M. rule?

Delgado v. Trax Bar & Grill (36 Cal.4th 224 (2005)) adopted an explicit sliding scale: the more foreseeable the harm, the greater the burden the law imposes, but the costlier the measure, the higher the foreseeability needed. It clarified that minimally burdensome steps — like staff responding to an observed, imminent threat — can be required on a lesser showing, even without prior similar incidents. Call Trembach Law Firm at (213) 645-2246.

What is a “prior similar incident”?

Evidence of earlier violent crime close enough in nature and location to make the specific harm foreseeable. Courts weigh both similarity and proximity; a history of minor property crimes may not make a violent assault foreseeable. Police reports, area crime statistics, and the premises’ own incident history are typical proof.

Do I have to prove security would have stopped the attack?

Yes. Causation is often the hardest element: you must show the missing measure was a substantial factor in causing or worsening the harm (CACI 430) — for example, that adequate guards, lighting, or locks would have deterred or interrupted the crime. Security experts are commonly used to establish this.

Does a landlord owe tenants a duty to provide security?

A landlord may owe tenants a duty to maintain reasonable security in common areas — functioning locks, adequate lighting, secure gates — where crime is foreseeable. The special landlord-tenant relationship supports the duty; the sliding-scale foreseeability analysis defines how much security reasonable care requires.

What evidence matters most in a negligent-security case?

Surveillance footage (often overwritten within days, so preserve it fast), the physical condition of the premises, incident and police reports, and the history of prior crimes at the location. Because the history and foreseeability drive the case, early investigation and subpoenas are often essential.

How long do I have to sue in California?

Generally two years from the injury for a personal-injury claim (Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1). Shorter deadlines and a claim-presentation requirement apply if a public entity is involved. Because deadlines and evidence preservation are time-sensitive, consult counsel promptly. Call Trembach Law Firm at (213) 645-2246.

Talk to a California Premises-Liability Lawyer About a Security Failure

If you were assaulted, robbed, or shot on property that lacked reasonable security, you may have a claim against the owner or business whose failure enabled a foreseeable crime. These cases turn on the Ann M. and Delgado foreseeability framework and on difficult questions of causation. Trembach Law Firm, led by Anatolii Trembach (LL.M.; admitted in California), investigates negligent-security claims, preserves time-sensitive evidence, and pursues full compensation for victims. Call (213) 645-2246 for a confidential consultation.

Contact Trembach Law Firm at (818) 514-7680 for a confidential consultation.

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