Sharon P. v. Arman, Ltd.
| Decision Date | 08 July 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. B094739,B094739 |
| Citation | 56 Cal.App.4th 266,65 Cal.Rptr.2d 640 |
| Parties | Previously published at 56 Cal.App.4th 266 56 Cal.App.4th 266, 97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 5438, 97 Daily Journal D.A.R. 8775 SHARON P., Plaintiff and Appellant, v. ARMAN, LTD., et al., Defendants and Respondents. |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Peter B. O'Brien and Kelly L. Duenckel, Los Angeles, for Plaintiff and Appellant.
Early, Maslach, Price & Baukol, Larry E. Robinson, Los Angeles, Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland, Marc J. Poster, Beverly Hills, Robert A. Olson, Acker, Kowalick & Whipple, Stephen Acker and A. Gina Hogtanian, Los Angeles, for Defendants and Respondents.
In this case, we deal with an issue left unresolved by the Supreme Court in Ann M. v. Pacific Plaza Shopping Center (1993) 6 Cal.4th 666, 25 Cal.Rptr.2d 137, 863 P.2d 207, to wit, the extent to which commercial parking garages can be fairly characterized as inherently dangerous, and the impact which that circumstance has on the duty of the owners and operators thereof to take reasonable precautions to protect users from the criminal acts of third persons.
Plaintiff Sharon P. appeals from a summary judgment granted to defendants Arman, Ltd. and APCOA, Inc. ("Arman," "Apcoa," collectively "defendants"). Plaintiff filed this suit after she was attacked and sexually assaulted at gunpoint in a subterranean parking garage in the commercial office building where she worked. The building and garage are owned by Arman and the garage is managed by Apcoa. The summary judgment was based on the trial court's determination that defendants owed no duty of care to plaintiff. After reviewing plaintiff's evidence of various crimes in the surrounding neighborhood, including a number of robberies in the bank located above the parking garage, the court determined that such evidence was "not sufficient to raise a triable issue of fact in that it does not establish the degree of foreseeability necessary to impose upon the defendants a duty to the plaintiff." For the reasons set forth in this opinion, the trial court's conclusion reflected an incorrect analysis and application of relevant case law.
We conclude defendants did owe a duty of care to plaintiff to provide reasonable security measures in the commercial parking garage which was owned and operated by them and in which plaintiff was attacked. Whether the manner in which they operated and maintained that garage constituted a breach of that duty and, if so, whether such breach was a legal cause of the damages suffered by plaintiff, are issues which must be addressed upon remand. We therefore reverse the judgment and remand for further proceedings consistent with the views expressed herein.
l. Procedural History
According to plaintiff's complaint, she rented an assigned parking space in the subterranean parking garage which is at issue in this case. The parking area is reserved for tenants of the Coast Savings building at 1180 South Beverly Drive, in Los Angeles. The complaint alleges plaintiff conducted accounting business activities in a suite in the office/bank building. The complaint further alleges that on Thursday, April 8, 1993, at around 11:00 a.m., the day and time she was attacked, defendants failed to take appropriate security measures for this parking garage, and their inaction resulted in the attack upon her and in her consequent pain, suffering and extreme emotional distress, as well as past, present and future medical expenses and loss of income.
This suit was filed on March 11, 1994. Apcoa filed its motion for summary judgment on December 21, 1994, contending that neither it, nor Arman, owed a duty to make the garage more secure because the attack on plaintiff was not reasonably foreseeable. Apcoa also contended it had no liability to plaintiff as it owed no duty to her. It justified that conclusion on the grounds that it neither owned nor occupied the land where she was attacked, nor did it have any contractual responsibilities to plaintiff under its contract with Arman because that contract only required Apcoa to collect rents on the parking space. On February 3, 1995, defendant Arman filed papers by which it partially joined in and partially opposed Apcoa's motion. Arman's papers challenged Apcoa's assertion that Apcoa had no contractual duties which would make it liable to plaintiff. Arman cited insurance and indemnity portions of the contract between itself and Apcoa. The motions were heard March 13, 1995, and granted. The record reflects that the trial court based its decision on the issues of foreseeability and duty. Judgment was entered April 5, 1995. This appeal followed.
2. Evidence Presented to the Trial Court
In her declaration filed in opposition to defendants' summary judgment motions, 1 plaintiff stated she had entered the underground parking garage on the day in question at 11:00 a.m., and parked in her assigned space. She exited her vehicle, leaned back into the car to remove items from the back seat, and when she turned around, a man in a ski mask was pointing a gun at her. She tried to talk her way out of harm, but was forced back into the car and sexually assaulted. Her attacker was not caught. Plaintiff stated that for several months preceding her attack, the overall condition of the garage had deteriorated. It was not unusual for several lights to be out, and this would cause darkened areas in the garage. There were lights out in the immediate area of her parking space. 2 On the day of her attack, the garage "had several darkened areas that provided vantage points from which someone lying in wait until after the morning influx of tenants could observe a lone woman arriving in her car as easy prey." Several darkened storage areas would provide a place to hide. She smelled urine at various times during her walks to and from the garage. The garage was not kept clean. Plaintiff never saw defendants' employees monitoring or inspecting the garage. After the attack on her, she learned the security cameras in the garage had not been working for months.
A declaration from plaintiff's attorney, Kelly Duenckel, states that on October 25, 1994 (18 months after the attack on plaintiff), Ms. Duenckel examined the parking garage in question and found that at least 12 light bulbs were burned out and four lights were out in the row of parking spaces where plaintiff used to park. She observed that the storage spaces in the garage were dark and would provide an ideal hiding place, and at least one smelled of urine and had a cot by it. Both Duenckel and plaintiff stated in their declarations that these storage spaces were cordoned off with chain link fence; however, Duenckel indicated it appeared that "anyone could have access to these storage spaces." Duenckel also observed that the video cameras above the elevator doors were not functioning. She stated the garage bore no indication that it was regularly maintained.
Retired Pasadena police chief, Robert McGowan, was deposed. McGowan testified that underground parking lots are potential places for criminals to lie in wait. His department worked with a mall and a department store in Pasadena that have underground parking facilities. The purpose was to warn of the dangers of such facilities. He stated that covered parking structures, underground or overground, present a more difficult security problem than surface lots because of visibility and opportunity problems.
In his deposition testimony, Zacaria Simantob (whom plaintiff's papers describe as being "from [defendant] Arman"), 3 stated that the subject garage had a camera but it did not function because Arman was not legally required to have a functioning camera. In an answer to an interrogatory propounded by plaintiff, Arman asserted that pursuant to the contract between Apcoa and Arman, Apcoa is responsible for injuries occurring in the parking garage and Arman is not responsible.
Other evidence was presented by plaintiff. Coast Savings' records show that the branch of that institution where the parking garage in question is located had nine robberies, including an armed robbery, between February 1991 and February 1994, with two occurring in 1991, four in 1992, two in 1993 (January and August), and one in January 1994. An injury occurred in one of the robberies.
Apcoa presented a declaration from the aforementioned retired police chief, Robert McGowan. He stated he is a self-employed security consultant, working in that capacity for nine years. He has investigated or overseen investigations for many parking lot assaults and has been retained as an expert witness on 29 matters involving parking lots and structures. On September 7, 1994 (17 months after the assault on plaintiff), he inspected the subject parking facility and found its size to be around 200 feet by 225 feet. It has 79 parking spaces. He found the lighting "sufficient to clearly view from one side of the garage to the other in any direction." Although there are support columns in the garage, they "do not seriously obstruct the overall view of the garage from any point within the garage." There is an electronically operated gate for vehicles entering the garage, two passenger elevators to the building lobby, and a stairwell to the lobby.
McGowan offered several opinions. He stated that because there are at least three entrances to the garage through which an assailant can enter, and because people come and go during the business day, "there is no effective way to prevent a person from entering the garage or to confirm each person's identity and reason for entering the garage." Closing the garage door is not effective because a person can wait for a car to pass through the gate and then walk into the garage while the gate is closing, or enter in a vehicle himself...
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Sharon P. v. Arman, Ltd.
...P., Appellant, v. ARMAN, LIMITED et al., Respondents. No. S063612. Supreme Court of California. Oct. 22, 1997. Prior report: Cal.App., 65 Cal.Rptr.2d 640. Petitions for review GEORGE, C.J., and KENNARD, BAXTER, WERDEGAR, CHIN and BROWN, JJ., concur. ...