Rodriguez-Quinones v. Jimenez & Ruiz, S.E., 04-1028.

• Decision Date: 29 March 2005
• Docket Number: No. 04-1028.,04-1028.
• Parties: Dr. Iris Beth RODRÍGUEZ-QUIÑONES, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. JIMÉNEZ & RUIZ, S.E., d/b/a J & R Limited Partnership; Dr. Jorge L. Jiménez-Rivera; Dr. Oscar A. Ruiz-Lacomba; Integrand Assurance Company, Defendants, Appellants. Consejo De Titulares Condominio Clínica Las Américas; Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Company of Puerto Rico, Inc.; J.R. Ortiz Security Inc.; Ace Insurance Company; American International Insurance Company; A-Z Insurance Company; John Doe 01CV2274, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 251

402 F.3d 251

Dr. Iris Beth RODRÍGUEZ-QUIÑONES, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. JIMÉNEZ & RUIZ, S.E., d/b/a J & R Limited Partnership; Dr. Jorge L. Jiménez-Rivera; Dr. Oscar A. Ruiz-Lacomba; Integrand Assurance Company, Defendants, Appellants.

Consejo De Titulares Condominio Clínica Las Américas; Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Company of Puerto Rico, Inc.; J.R. Ortiz Security Inc.; Ace Insurance Company; American International Insurance Company; A-Z Insurance Company; John Doe 01CV2274, Defendants.

No. 04-1028.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard December 8, 2004.

Decided March 29, 2005.

Marcos Valls-Sanchez with whom Cobián & Valls was on brief for appellants.

Judith Berkan with whom Mary Jo Mendez and Berkan/Mendez were on brief for appellee.

Before BOUDIN, Chief Judge, CYR, Senior Circuit Judge, and LIPEZ, Circuit Judge.

BOUDIN, Chief Judge.

This appeal arises from a tort action brought by Dr. Iris Beth Rodríguez-Quiñones ("Rodríguez") in diversity in the Puerto Rico federal district court. The case arises from the rape and robbery of Rodríguez on April 28, 2000, at Clínica Las Américas ("Clínica") — a multi-condominium-unit medical clinic where she worked as a clinical psychologist — in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. The defendants were Clínica itself and a group — the "office 410 defendants" —composed of the owners of the office in which Rodríguez worked: Dr. Jorge L. Jiménez Rivera ("Jiménez"), Dr. Oscar A. Ruiz Locomba ("Ruiz"), and a partnership named Jiménez & Ruiz, S.E.

Clínica operates a five-story office building containing about 40 health-care-related offices. The health-care providers include doctors who own condominium office units in the building as well as doctors who rent office space from the owners. Clínica also has a multi-story parking garage next to the medical building, a ground-level parking lot, and grounds. The building is governed by a board of directors, whose members are condominium unit owners, as well as by an Executive Committee.

Jiménez and Ruiz (through their partnership) were the owners of office 410 on the fourth floor of Clínica in which they ran a psychiatry and psychology practice. Several other doctors paid to use space in the office for certain hours. Within office 410, a main door (used by patients) led from the Clínica fourth-floor hallway into the waiting area. In the waiting area, an intermediate door gave access to the "back office" area containing individual rooms for the doctors and a receptionist's area; a window in the waiting area looked through to the receptionist's area.

Rodríguez had a lease with Jiménez and Ruiz allowing her to use one of the doctors' offices in office 410 for 20 hours per week — including 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays — for her clinical therapy practice. On Friday afternoon, April 28, 2000, Rodríguez was working alone in office 410; no other doctors were present and the secretary had already left. Between 5:00 and 5:15 p.m., two young men (one with a glassy-eyed look) entered the office 410 waiting area in search of a physician. Rodríguez told them that there were no doctors available and, after a few minutes, they left. Concerned, Rodríguez attempted (without success) to contact Clínica security by calling the building's administrative office.

After 5:30 p.m., while Rodríguez was occupied with a young patient, the two men returned twice. On the second occasion, shortly after 6:00 p.m., the two men entered the waiting area and robbed the patient's mother. They then proceeded into the back area where Rodríguez and the patient were in Rodríguez' office, unsuccessfully searched the back office area for cash, and eventually raped and robbed Rodríguez. The attack caused Rodríguez to suffer such trauma that she was unable to continue as a clinical psychologist in Puerto Rico and moved to New York where she found more modest employment.

Rodríguez filed suit in the district court in Puerto Rico, claiming that Clínica and the office 410 defendants were negligent in providing security in the Clínica building and office 410, respectively. After a seven-day trial the jury found the defendants negligent and found also that there was no "comparative negligence" by Rodríguez. The jury awarded Rodríguez $2 million in economic damages and $1.5 million for emotional and physical injury, assigning 60 percent responsibility to Clínica and 40 percent responsibility to the office 410 defendants.

The defendants filed motions for judgment as a matter of law and for a new trial or remittitur. Fed.R.Civ.P. 50, 59. They claimed (among other things) that there was insufficient evidence of their negligence, that the jury's refusal to find comparative negligence was mistaken, and that the award of economic damages was excessive. The trial court denied all motions save that, by remittitur, it reduced economic damages to $877,481.

The office 410 defendants (but not Clínica) now appeal. Denials of motions for judgment as a matter of law are reviewed de novo. The evidence and credibility issues are considered in the light most favorable to the verdict and we may reverse only if a reasonable jury could not have reached such a verdict. Tapalian v. Tusino, 377 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir.2004); Trull v. Volkswagen of Am., Inc., 320 F.3d 1, 7-8 (1st Cir.2002). Denial of a motion for a new trial is ordinarily overturned only to prevent "a miscarriage of justice." Trull, 320 F.3d at 8.

The appellants' main attack is based on a supposed lack of a duty of care and insufficient evidence of negligence on their part. The pertinent evidence showed Clínica was located in a high-crime area within San Juan and that there were a good number of cash transactions in the offices. The evidence also showed that numerous entrances led into the building and that security-guard coverage was limited. No security cameras were used as of April 28, 2000, and Clínica had not implemented a number of security recommendations that had been made to its board.

Office 410 was the last office at the end of one of the wings; its entrance was about 15 to 20 feet from an exit to a stairwell and freight elevator that led down to a lateral door (open until late at night) that let out near the external parking lot. About 10 percent of the patients in the office paid cash which was given to the office secretary and placed in envelopes in a drawer in the receptionist area. Office 410 also had samples of pharmaceuticals in an unlocked cabinet in one of the interior offices.

The only security in place in office 410 consisted of the locks on the main door and the door between the waiting room and the back office area. There was no electronic locking system, "buzzer" entry system, or security camera. The regular practice was to leave the door to the hallway open at all times when there were people in the office. The secretaries regularly left the office at 5:00 or 5:30 p.m., frequently leaving one or more doctors alone in the evening. No instructions were given to the employees or tenants about locking the door.

There was mixed evidence as to Jiménez' and Ruiz' awareness of prior incidents of criminal conduct at Clínica within the two years preceding the rape. These incidents included a break-in during July 1998 at the building administration offices during which petty cash was stolen; an armed robbery in March 1999 in the parking garage; and an incident in November 1999 during which five offices on the third, fourth, and fifth floors were burglarized.

Jiménez and Ruiz denied knowing about any of these incidents prior to the litigation. Nevertheless, there was documentary evidence that Ruiz was on the Clínica board when the break-in occurred in Clínica's administrative office. Jiménez was a member of the board in 1998-1999, and was secretary from 1999 to 2002 (and was part of the executive committee), a period encompassing both the garage robbery and the burglary of five offices.

Puerto Rico's Civil Code imposes liability for an "act or omission" that "causes damages to another through fault or negligence," article 1802, 31 P.R. Laws Ann. § 5141 (1990); and "fault or negligence" may be based on "the omission of the steps which may be required by the character of the obligation and which may pertain to the circumstances of the persons, time, and place," article 1057, 31 P.R. Laws Ann. § 3021 (1990). See Coyne v. Taber Partners I, 53 F.3d 454, 458 (1st Cir.1995); Rivera Perez v. Cruz Corchado, 19 P.R. Offic. Trans. 10, 21 (1987). In the case of an omission, the defendant must have been under a duty to act — here, a duty to "provide security commensurate with the circumstances attendant to their operations." Coyne, 53 F.3d at 458.

Jiménez and Ruiz argue that Puerto Rico law "does not recognize or impose upon owners and lessors of office buildings a general legal obligation to provide heightened security." They rely upon cases like Jacob v. Eagle Star Insurance Co., 640 F.Supp. 117, 118 (D.P.R.1986), which stated that "[o]rdinarily, a person is not responsible in tort for criminal conduct of third parties," and ...