HOA liability due to failure to enforce rules

A Santa Fe jury late Monday awarded $12 million to the three young sons of an Albuquerque man who was killed by a stray bullet that pierced the front door of his apartment while he was looking through the peep hole at people who were fighting in a common area outside his door.
The jury found that Eagle’s Nest Condominium Association, the owner of the condominium complex where Andrae Davis, 31, died on Aug. 17, 2011, and Roger Cox & Associates Property Management, who helped manage the property, were at fault because they had rules in place to ensure the safety of residents but didn’t enforce them.
Eagle’s Nest was assigned 25 percent of the liability for the award, and the property management company was assigned 45 percent of the liability.
The shooter, who was never apprehended, a neighbor believed to have been the intended target of the attack and the owner of the condo who had rented to the alleged target were each assigned 10 percent of the liability.
The children who will benefit from the award are 8, 4, and 3 years old.

This article appeared in the news section of this site.

Might apply to other hazards.

I have little faith in the media's ability to accurately report legal matters and I suspect that there was far more to this story than failure to enforce the rules.

Courts in several states have already ruled that a condo has the same obligation to provide security that one would find in a similar apartment complex. That obligation does not depend upon what rules the association may have or whether the association is enforcing their own rules.

Richard points out that, "and the area it occurred, am I surprised, no." I lived in Albuquerque for a short time around 1990 and would have to agree that a lot of criminal activity is no surprise. I think being in a high-crime community increases the association's obligation to provide some level of security rather than diminishes it.

I do not find the jury award especially outrageous considering that there were three young children who apparently witnessed their father being shot to death inside their own home. Each child will go an entire lifetime without a father. Thirty percent of that judgment is virtually uncollectable right off the bat since it is unlikely that either the intended victim or his landlord have insurance sufficient to cover their portion of the judgments. It's anyone's guess as to whether the association has insurance to cover the three million they owe. The same guess about the management company's share of 5.4 million.

In the report on the story by the local TV station one of the plaintiffs attorney's said:

“First and foremost, they should have been tenant screening. They allowed a person who had a fake name, a fake id, to be on the property,” said Ben Davis, another attorney for the Davis family. “Turns out, he was likely dealing drugs and got involved in an attack with another drug dealer. It went through the door and killed Andrae Davis.”

We get questions here all the time about screening residents with background checks. I wonder if those were the rules the Association had in place that led to the suit.

Thank you for the follow up, Richard. There a huge difference between a PM works for or is under contract with an MC and the HOA, and a property mgr. who just is a renting and leasing agent and has no relationship with the HOA.

I, too, have little faith in media reports about HOAs as the reporters often have no knowledge of what they're writing about!

And if memory serves John you reside in an HOA.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Johnny,

What is your basis for such a statement (link or web address of news articles, etc.)?

How about. I remember how the city stole off the Sandia foothills because nuh. How about because I also witnessed the goings on at eagles nest. How about the city landzowners pose at eagles nest being the centre of a investigation and coincedently before they got sued. Well looky their. The city land owners private investment company just landed the santolina deal. Get it. Over 200 cameras and a very active anticrime crime ring at eagles nest when the death happened

Interesting, BobD, but Jon's writing style is nothing like JohnnyD's. I do notice that JohnnyD uses the Canadian/British way of spelling "center." So maybe JohnnyD really is from further Up North than Jon of NY?

Since you're trying to figure out who everyone is, could Tim be Tim Kelley on the Media and Communications Team in Suffolk Va? Just askin' ya no.