You finished dinner, wrapped up a hospital visit, checked out of your hotel, or left a concert. The visit itself went fine. It was the walk back to the car that turned into a nightmare: a robbery at gunpoint, a carjacking, a beating, a shooting.
Many victims in this situation assume the business they had just left has nothing to do with what happened outside. That assumption is often wrong. A business that invites customers onto its property, and provides or relies on a parking area for them, may owe a duty to keep that parking area reasonably secure.
Why the duty reaches the lot
Customers do not teleport into a restaurant or store. They arrive by car, park in the space the business provides or designates, and walk through that area coming and going. In many situations, a company's responsibility extends to the parking it provides for patrons, and an attack in a store, restaurant, hotel, or venue's lot can support a claim against that company if its security there was inadequate.
The same is true for other businesses that rely on attached parking. Malls, hotels, apartment complexes, and hospitals frequently own or control lots and garages for the people they serve.
When the business is liable
Not every crime in a business's lot creates liability. The key questions are:
- Did the business control the lot or its security? It may own the lot outright, lease it, share it with neighboring tenants, or contract with a garage operator. Control helps determine who had the duty.
- Was the crime foreseeable? Lots tend to be lonely, shadowy, and simple for an attacker to slip in and out of. When a particular lot has a history of crime, the next attack is often foreseeable.
- Was security reasonable? Reasonable security in a parking area typically includes adequate lighting on levels, ramps, and stairwells, working cameras, access control, patrols where there is a known crime problem, and functioning elevators and stairwell doors.
Examples of how this can play out
- A restaurant whose lot has seen repeated late-night robberies keeps its exterior lights off after closing staff leave, and a customer is robbed and shot walking to her car.
- A hotel guest is assaulted in an unlit corner of the hotel's garage, where the cameras had been broken for months.
- A hospital visitor is attacked in a stairwell after the garage elevator had been out of service for weeks, forcing people into an isolated stairwell with a door that did not lock.
- A concertgoer is shot in a venue's overflow lot where no patrols were assigned despite earlier incidents at prior events.
These are hypothetical illustrations, but each reflects the kinds of failures that lead to negligent-security claims.
Other parties who may share responsibility
The business you visited may not be the only responsible party. A standalone lot operator, a property management company, or a security company hired to patrol or monitor the lot may also be liable. Many parking cases involve more than one defendant, and each may carry its own insurance.
Shared lots at strip centers and plazas
At many shopping plazas and strip centers, several businesses share one parking lot. In that situation, the landlord who owns the center often controls the lot, but individual tenants may also have obligations under their leases, such as keeping exterior lights on during business hours. When a customer is attacked in a shared lot, the investigation looks at who was responsible for each piece of security in that spot. More than one business may end up sharing responsibility.
What victims can recover
Attacks in parking areas frequently cause catastrophic gunshot injuries. Recoverable losses include emergency and ongoing treatment, care that may be needed for a lifetime, lost paychecks, and pain and suffering. When a customer is killed, the family may bring a wrongful-death claim.
Results from the firm
The Haggard Law Firm has handled nearly 500 negligent-security cases. Its results include $3.9 million won at trial for the relatives of a teenager shot in an apartment lot, and a $102.7 million verdict, the largest negligent-security verdict in U.S. history, in a case involving inadequate security at a Miami nightclub and shopping center. These amounts are gross recoveries before fees and costs.
What to do now
Write down where you parked and which business you were visiting. Keep any receipt, ticket, or reservation that shows why you were there. Photograph the lot's lighting, cameras, and signage if you can do so safely. Then talk to a lawyer before footage is overwritten.
The firm handles these cases on contingency, so there is no fee unless it wins. Call (305) 446-5700 for a free and confidential case review.
Attorney advertising. The examples above are illustrations, not descriptions of real cases, and this post is not legal advice. Reaching out does not make you a client. Earlier verdicts are no guarantee of how a new case will end.
