PERSONAL INJURY LAW: Shopping center owner did not owe duty to trespasser

The plaintiff allegedly fell in a drainage ditch along a parking lot between two plazas.  The plaintiff was present to meet her daughter and to visit a restaurant at the adjacent plaza, where the parking lot was full.  The plaintiff was not present to visit any of the tenant businesses for the lot in which she parked.

The lot was reserved for the use of customers of tenants in the shopping center, and the plaintiff offered no evidence that the defendant owner consented to her presence in the lot.  Further, there was no evidence that trespassers regularly intruded in the ditch in question.  Since the plaintiff qualified as a trespasser, no duty was owed. The Superior Court grants summary judgment to the owner of the shopping center.

Ferry v. 66 Realty Assoc., August 5, 2015