Shopping Mall Negligent Security Lawsuit in New York

What the law says about mall security in New York

A shopping mall is not automatically responsible every time a crime happens on its property. New York does not make property owners insurers of visitor safety. What the law does require is that a business that invites the public onto its premises take reasonable measures to protect those visitors from foreseeable harm, including criminal acts by third parties.

That duty grows when the danger is predictable. If a mall, its parking garage, or a nearby stretch of its property has a documented history of muggings, assaults, car break-ins, or other violent crime, the owner is on notice. A negligent security claim asks a simple question: knowing what they knew, did the owner act reasonably to keep you safe?

Who can be held liable

Liability in a mall attack case is rarely limited to the attacker. Several parties may share responsibility:

• The mall owner or property management company that controls the common areas, parking lots, and walkways.
• A contracted security company hired to patrol the property, if its guards were absent, undertrained, or ignored obvious threats.
• Individual tenant stores for incidents that occur inside their own leased space.
• The person who committed the crime, though a criminal often has no assets to recover from, which is why the security claim against the property usually matters most.

Determining who owed you a duty depends on who controlled the area where you were hurt and who was responsible for security there.

Proving the mall was negligent

To win a negligent security case, you generally have to show four things: the property owner owed you a duty of reasonable care, the criminal attack was foreseeable, the owner failed to take reasonable security measures, and that failure was a substantial cause of your injuries.

Foreseeability is the heart of most of these cases. Evidence that builds it includes prior police reports for the location, internal incident logs, complaints from tenants or shoppers, broken or absent lighting, malfunctioning cameras, propped-open doors, and gaps in guard coverage. The stronger the pattern of past crime, the harder it is for an owner to argue an attack came out of nowhere.

How case value is determined

It is not honest for any lawyer to promise a dollar figure, and outcomes vary widely from case to case. Prior results do not guarantee future ones. What value depends on are the factors, including:

• The severity and permanence of your injuries, including physical and psychological harm.
• Total medical expenses, both past and projected future treatment.
• Lost wages and any reduced ability to work going forward.
• Pain, suffering, and emotional trauma such as PTSD common after a violent attack.
• How clearly the security failures can be documented and tied to your harm.
• Available insurance coverage from the property and any security contractor.

New York also follows comparative negligence, so any percentage of fault assigned to you reduces, but does not necessarily eliminate, your recovery. CPLR §1411

Deadlines you cannot miss

In most New York personal injury cases, including negligent security, you have three years from the date of the incident to file a lawsuit. CPLR §214 If a loved one was killed, a wrongful death claim generally must be brought within two years. EPTL §5-4.1

The deadline can be different and much shorter if a government entity is involved, such as a publicly owned facility, which can require a Notice of Claim within 90 days. GML §50-e Because evidence like security footage is often overwritten within days or weeks, it is wise to act quickly regardless of the formal deadline.

Common shopping mall scenarios

Negligent security claims at malls tend to arise from a familiar set of situations: assaults and robberies in dimly lit parking lots or garages, attacks in stairwells or isolated corridors, abductions from parking structures, fights that security failed to break up, and shootings where threats had been reported but ignored. The common thread is that a reasonable security response, more lighting, working cameras, attentive patrols, controlled access, might have prevented or reduced the harm.

What to do next

If you were attacked at a shopping mall, report the incident to mall management and the police, get medical attention, and document everything you can, including photos of the location, lighting, and any visible security equipment. Identify witnesses and note the time and exact spot of the attack. Then speak with a New York personal injury attorney promptly so a request can be sent to preserve surveillance video before it is erased. For assault and violent crime cases, Banville Law works in partnership with The Haggard Law Firm to ensure clients have access to experienced trial counsel. An evaluation of your situation costs you nothing and helps you understand whether the property’s security fell short of what the law requires.

Frequently asked questions