In a recent decision, the Court of Appeals affirmed that standard negligence principles apply in premises liability cases and that landlords will not automatically escape liability for an assault that takes place on their premises just because it was a targeted, premeditated attack rather than a random act of violence. In Scurry v. New York City Housing Authority and Estate of Murphy v. New York City Housing Authority, the court ruled in cases from the Appellate Division, Second Department and Appellate Division, First Department, respectively, that intentional attacks on the respective decedents were not an independent intervening cause that broke the proximate causal nexus between the New York City Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) alleged negligence in failing to adequately safeguard the premises and the decedents’ deaths.

In a unanimous decision written by Chief Judge Rowan D. Wilson and joined by all associate judges other than Judge Caitlin J. Halligan who took no part, the court affirmed the Second Department’s denial of summary judgment to NYCHA in Scurry and reversed the First Department’s grant of summary judgment in Murphy.

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