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Ramirez v. M.L. Management Co.11/30/2005
In this dog bite case, the appellant asks us to limit the application of Tran v. Bancroft, 648 So. 2d 314 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995), in which we held that a landlord has no duty to third parties for injuries caused by a tenant's dog where those injuries occur off the leased premises. The trial court relied on Tran in granting summary judgment to the landlord. The child injured in this case resides with her mother, a tenant of the landlord, and was bitten by the dog of another tenant in a park adjacent to the apartment complex where she lived. The park was advertised by the apartment complex as an amenity. Because the landlord owed a duty to its tenant, the boundary of the premises is not dispositive of the landlord's liability, and the rule of Tran does not apply to these facts. We reverse.
Appellant, Jemma Ramirez, and three of her children, including her daughter Carlina, were tenants at an apartment complex owned by M.L. Management and known as Lake Villas. The complex bordered a park owned by the Town of Pembroke Park, which contained a jogging trail and other amenities. Lake Villas advertised the availability of the park in its brochures. It wrote:
You'll enjoy:
· Lush Tropical Landscaping
· Custom Design Pool and Sun Deck Area
· Fully Equipped Exercise Room
· Elegant Clubhouse
· Waterfront Views
· Laundry Facilities
· Adjacent Park with jogging trail, vita course, fishing pier, and shuffleboard
· Driving Range
(emphasis added). The same information appeared on the Lake Villas website.
The tenants understood that there was a close relationship between the apartment complex and the park. Ramirez said that when she came to look at the apartments she was shown the park and was told it was "part of the total package." Another tenant testified that she did not know whether the town or the apartment complex owned the park.
Lake Villas allows pets, but the lease agreement included rules which specifically prohibited certain breeds of dogs, including pit bulls. Residents could be evicted for violations of the rules. Despite this prohibition, another tenant, Keith Poole, owned two pit bulls which occasionally were loose in the complex. They had menaced some of the other tenants, and one tenant testified that she had reported them to the management. Poole had not been asked to leave for violation of the rules.
On the date of the injury, the children's grandmother took the children to play in the adjacent park. While they were there, two pit bulls entered the park and approached the family. The dogs barked at the younger children. Carlina recognized the dogs as the ones from the apartment complex and knew the name of one of them. She called to the dog to stop barking. Carlina then skated off on her rollerblades. A few minutes later, her grandmother heard her screaming and found the dogs attacking her. Carlina suffered severe injuries and required plastic surgery to repair her wounds.
Ramirez filed suit against M.L. Management for damages, alleging that it had violated its duty to its tenant by permitting the known danger of the dogs on its premises. As a result of that breach, Carlina was injured. M.L. Management moved for summary judgment based upon Tran. The trial court granted summary judgment, concluding that because the incident occurred in the park off the leased premises, the landlord could not be liable for the injury.
In Tran, a landlord leased a single family home to a tenant who owned a dog known to the landlord to be vicious and over which the landlord could have exercised control. The dog j
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