Summary
affirming jury verdict against hotel owner in favor of woman who was raped in her hotel room by a stranger
Summary of this case from Kukla v. Syfus Leasing Corp.Opinion
October 28, 1993
Appeal from the Supreme Court, New York County (Karla Moskowitz, J.).
The hotel logbook entries containing reports of burglaries and thefts on the premises were not hearsay since they were offered not for the truth of the matters asserted but to show that the hotel had received the information and was therefore on notice of criminal activity. Since the business record rule was therefore not implicated it was immaterial that the hotel guests who made the reports were under no duty to do so. In any event, testimony of a hotel assistant manager and of a Pinkerton's security guard assigned to the hotel was sufficient to demonstrate that the hotel was on notice. While the notice was of burglaries, rather than of rape or other violent crimes similar to the incident here, there is no requirement that the criminal conduct be of the same type as that to which plaintiff was subjected in order to establish foreseeability (Jacqueline S. v. City of New York, 81 N.Y.2d 288, 294-295), and indeed burglary is a willful act from which physical injury can reasonably be said to be a probable consequence (see, Nallan v. Helmsley-Spear, Inc., 67 A.D.2d 719, 724 [Hopkins, J., dissenting], revd 50 N.Y.2d 507), as defendant's witnesses conceded.
The adequacy of the hotel's security was within the province of the jury, as was proximate cause (see, Rotz v. City of New York, 143 A.D.2d 301, 304). Since the rapist was clearly identified as someone who did not belong in the hotel, the situation is unlike those in which proximate cause had not been demonstrated because it could not be shown how the unknown criminal third party entered the premises (see, Kistoo v. City of New York, 195 A.D.2d 403, citing Pagan v. Hampton Houses, 187 A.D.2d 325 [as likely as not that crime was committed by someone known to decedent whose presence in the building was not due to any negligence on landlord's part]; Hendricks v. Kempler, 156 A.D.2d 425, lv denied 77 N.Y.2d 808 [possibility that the assailant gained entry through persons he knew in the building]).
While the trial court may have erred in sending an exhibit into the jury room in addition to that requested, and improperly accorded plaintiff's security witnesses expert status while denying such status to defendant Lextaj's witnesses, under the circumstances herein any such errors did not have an impact on the verdict.
The amount of damages awarded does not deviate materially from reasonable compensation (cf., Pantages v. L.G. Airport Hotel Assocs., 187 A.D.2d 273).
We have considered defendant Lextaj's other arguments including, inter alia, the claim that the trial court was biased, and find them either unpreserved or without merit.
Concur — Murphy, P.J., Kupferman, Ross and Rubin, JJ.