Summary Judgment in Favor Homeowner in Injury Case

Obtained summary judgment for owner of home at which a guest of tenants was seriously injured by an attendee of an unruly youth party who returned to the home wielding a baseball bat. The principal legal issues were whether the landlord, who was not present at the time of the injury, had any duty of care toward a guest of the tenants, and if so, whether the landlord’s negligence could be considered a legal cause of the guest’s injury. The superior court ruled that because it was not foreseeable that the party attendee, who returned to the home several hours after police had dispersed most of the party attendees, would enter the house and commit a felonious assault with a deadly weapon upon the guest, there could be no liability against the landlord.