Green Companies v. Divincenzo, 80-1622
| Decision Date | 19 April 1983 |
| Docket Number | No. 80-1622,80-1622 |
| Citation | 432 So.2d 86 |
| Parties | The GREEN COMPANIES, a corporation, and Allstate Insurance Company, a foreign corporation, Appellants, v. Nicholas DIVINCENZO and Mary Jane Divincenzo, his wife, Appellees. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Page 86
Company, a foreign corporation, Appellants,
v.
Nicholas DIVINCENZO and Mary Jane Divincenzo, his wife, Appellees.
Third District.
Rehearing Denied June 15, 1983.
Underwood, Gillis, Karcher, Reinert & Valle and Anthony Reinert, Miami, for appellants.
Horton, Perse & Ginsberg and Arnold R. Ginsberg, Colson & Hicks, Miami, for appellees.
Page 87
Before DANIEL S. PEARSON and FERGUSON, JJ., and PEARSON, TILLMAN (Ret.), Associate Judge.
PER CURIAM.
Plaintiff Nicholas DiVincenzo was a tenant in an office complex known as Dadeland Towers. On June 23, 1976, sometime after 6:00 p.m., DiVincenzo was seriously injured by an unknown assailant while working at his Dadeland Towers office. Just prior to the assault, he had left his office unattended, with the door unlocked, in order to go across the hall to the bathroom. Upon returning to his office, he was brutally attacked and left with substantial permanent injuries.
In 1972, when Mr. DiVincenzo, a real estate broker, first rented one of the forty-nine offices in the seven-story 9300 Building at Dadeland Towers, there was a security guard stationed at the main entrance to the building from 4:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. The guard locked the doors at 5:00 p.m.
About two years later, these security procedures changed: the guard was removed; the doors were not locked until 7:00 p.m.; a camera, activated and monitored from a separate building after 7:00 p.m., was positioned at the rear entranceway; the rear entranceway was equipped with an electronic lock and buzzer to allow entry at night.
DiVincenzo and his wife, Mary Jane, brought suit against The Green Companies, the owner of the office complex, and its insurer, Allstate Insurance Company, alleging (i) a landlord-tenant relationship, (ii) the unusually high crime rate in the vicinity of the office complex, (iii) the landlord's knowledge of the situation, (iv) the duty owed by the landlord to DiVincenzo to institute procedures to make and keep the premises reasonably safe for occupancy and (v) the consequent injuries to DiVincenzo as a result of the landlord's failure to perform that duty. Following a jury trial, a verdict was returned finding The Green Companies' negligence to have contributed 75% to the plaintiff's injuries, and the plaintiff's own negligence to have contributed 25% to his injuries. Judgment was thereupon entered in accordance with the verdict.
The defendants, the landlord and its insurer, bring this...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Paterson v. Deeb
... ... E.g., Green Companies v. Divincenzo, 432 So.2d 86 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983); Ten Associates ... ...
-
Fernandez v. Miami Jai-Alai, Inc.
... ... in the immediate vicinity of the defendant's business premises; Green Companies v. Divincenzo, 432 So.2d 86, 88 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983); Winn-Dixie ... ...
-
Prime Hospitality Corp. v. Simms
... ... The appellant relies on cases which are distinguishable. In Green Companies v. DiVincenzo, 432 So.2d 86 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983), a victim was ... ...
-
Liberty Mut. Ins. Co. v. Martoglio
... ... Gulf & Western Manufacturing Co., 458 So.2d 58 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984); Green Companies v. DiVincenzo, 432 So.2d 86 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983); King Pest ... ...
-
Premises liability.
...was entitled to a directed verdict in its favor below."). Mr. Strickland also overlooks the nonresidential Green Companies v. Divincenzo, 432 So. 2d 86 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983), a case where there had never been a prior violent crime on premises. Foreseeability was supplied by evidence of crimina......