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Funchess v. Cecil Newman Corporation8/8/2000
After third parties entered an apartment and killed a tenant, the tenant's wrongful death trustee sued the landlord, alleging the landlord's negligence contributed to the tenant's death. The landlord moved for summary judgment, and the district court granted the motion. Tenant's trustee appeals, alleging that (a) a Minneapolis housing ordinance required the landlord to repair the door to the apartment; (b) regardless of the duty imposed by the Minneapolis Housing ordinance, the landlord had an independent duty to make sure that the apartment was secure; and (c) the lease required the landlord to repair the door.
FACTS
On May 12, 1995, J.W. Haynes was murdered in his apartment. Intruders gained access to the apartment building without using force and subsequently entered the apartment he shared with his girlfriend and their son. Haynes' mother, appellant Janice Funchess, commenced a wrongful-death action against respondent Cecil Newman Corporation (Newman), owner of Haynes' apartment building. Funchess alleged that the assailants were able to gain entrance to the building through a security door that had a broken lock. The district court granted summary judgment, finding that Newman owed no duty to Haynes. This appeal followed.
ISSUES
I. Was respondent obligated to protect decedent from the criminal acts of third parties?
II. Did respondent owe the decedent a statutory duty of care to maintain door locks in working condition? If so, were sufficient questions of material fact raised, rendering the district court's grant of summary judgment erroneous?
III. Is the intervening cause of a criminal act sufficiently foreseeable, so as to maintain the chain of causation?
IV. Did respondent have a contractual duty to maintain the door locks in working condition?
V. Should appellant's motion to strike portions of respondent's brief be granted?
ANALYSIS
Summary judgment may be granted when there is no genuine issue of material fact and either party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Minn. R. Civ. P. 56.03. To prevail on a negligence claim, a plaintiff must show: (1) the existence of a duty; (2)ábreach of that duty; (3) that the breach proximately caused the injury ; and (4)áinjury in fact. Hudson v. Snyder Body, Inc., 326 N.W.2d 149, 157 (Minn. 1982). The existence of a legal duty may be imposed by either the common law or a statute, Steffey v. Soo Line R.R., 498 N.W.2d 304, 307 (Minn. App. 1993), review denied (Minn. May 28, 1993), and is a question of law for the court to determine. Larson v. Larson, 373 N.W.2d 287, 289 (Minn. 1985). But the determination of whether a duty has been breached is generally within the province of the jury. Smith v. Carriere, 316 N.W.2d 574, 575 (Minn. 1982).
I. Common Law Duty and Special Relationship Exception
This appeal centers on what duty, if any, Newman owed Haynes. The district court granted summary judgment because it determined that Newman had no duty to protect Haynes. Specifically, the court concluded that no special relationship existed between Newman and Haynes that would give rise to a duty to protect.
Holding a landlord liable for the intentional criminal acts of a third party is a modern development, representing a change from the common law. See Errico v. Southland Corp., 509 N.W.2d 585, 587 (Minn. App. 1993) (generally, a person "has no duty to control the conduct of a third person in order to prevent that person from causing injury to another"), review denied (Minn. Jan. 27, 1994); see also Donaldson v. Young Women's Christian Ass'n, 539 N.W.2d 789, 792 (Minn. 1995) (a person gener
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