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Pulido v. Triad Property Management12/3/2004
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS
California Rules of Court, rule 977(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 977(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.
INTRODUCTION
Plaintiffs appeal from a judgment for defendants in plaintiffs' wrongful death suit against the owners and manager of an apartment building on whose premises a criminal assailant killed plaintiffs' husband and father. Plaintiffs rely on evidence that defendants failed to provide security, fencing, lighting, and repairs, failed to hire, train, and supervise on-site managers to prevent crime on defendants' property, and failed to exclude vagrants, vandals, transients, gang members, and criminals from the premises. Because the identity of the decedent's assailant is unknown, plaintiffs' evidence is speculative as to causation and does not provide substantial evidence that defendants' omissions caused the decedent's death. We affirm the grant of summary judgment for defendants.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Plaintiffs are Maria de la Paz Pulido, Israel Pulido, Maricruz Pulido, and Reyna Belen Pulido, the surviving spouse and children of Jose Armando Pulido, whom an unidentified criminal assailant killed on premises owned and managed by defendants. The operative complaint alleged a wrongful death cause of action defendants Triad Property Management, Jack R. White, and Janice Campagnolo, alleging that defendants negligently maintained their property in a dangerous condition.
Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment motion. Plaintiffs filed opposition.
The trial court granted summary judgment for defendants and entered judgment on July 15, 2003. Plaintiffs filed a timely notice of appeal.
FACTS
Triad Property Management, Jack R. White, and Janice Campagnolo own and manage an apartment building at 527 North Coronado Street in Los Angeles. The 16-unit apartment building was located next to the Hollywood Freeway between Alvarado Street and Rampart Boulevard. The complaint alleged that defendants owned and operated this property in a negligent and reckless manner, which allowed criminal assailants to enter the property on August 22, 2001, and to attack and murder decedent Jose Pulido, who died of gunshot wounds.
Defendants relied on a declaration by Sharon Schiff, employed by Triad Property Management from September 1999 to June 2002 as an offsite property supervisor of the 527 North Coronado apartment. Schiff stated she hired Fitzgerald and Caron Boggess as on-site property managers shortly after taking over supervision of the 527 North Coronado property. No known gang members lived in the building. Some criminal activity occurred on the premises, including domestic violence, two car break-ins or attempted break-ins, and vandalizing Fitzgerald Boggess's automobile on two occasions. Schiff described "general criminal gang activity" in the vicinity, but except for Pulido's murder, no criminal assaults occurred at 527 North Coronado by intruders or gang members. Pulido's assailant was unknown.
Plaintiffs cited Schiff's deposition testimony to dispute statements in her declaration about criminal activity before Pulido's murder. Schiff testified she knew someone tried to break into the apartment of the manager who preceded the Boggesses and knew of three or four car break-ins. Fitzgerald Boggess told Schiff the police were called about a domestic dispute in a downstairs apartment unit, and reported four or five car break-ins, one of which was
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