Crime victims in apartment houses may be defrauded consumers.When apartment house residents are injured by criminal acts on the premises, attorneys should consider filing claims for violation of state consumer protection laws consumer protection laws n. almost all states and the federal government have enacted laws and set up agencies to protect the consumer (the retail purchasers of goods and services) from inferior, adulterated, hazardous and deceptively advertised products, and as well as for negligence and fraud. This advice came from Brent Carpenter of Sugar Land, Texas, after a jury awarded his client traditional tort damages and treble damages A recovery of three times the amount of actual financial losses suffered which is provided by statute for certain kinds of cases. The statute authorizing treble damages directs the judge to multiply by three the amount of monetary damages awarded by the jury in those cases for violation of consumer protection laws. (Gonzalez v. Houston Longpoint Investment Corp. No. 94-052481 (Tex., Harris County Harris County is the name of several counties in the United States:
The victim was shot in the head after four intruders forced their way into his apartment. Two of his children witnessed the shooting. In addition to the consumer protection violations, the jury found the defendant landowner grossly negligent for failing to take any preventive action A preventive action is a change implemented to address a weakness in a management system that is not yet responsible for causing nonconforming product or service. Candidates for preventive action generally result from suggestions from customers or participants in the process after dozens of criminal acts had been reported on the premises. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Carpenter, possible advantages under state consumer protection laws include treble damages awarded for knowing violations and a burden of proof that is generally lower than that required for a finding of gross negligence An indifference to, and a blatant violation of, a legal duty with respect to the rights of others. Gross negligence is a conscious and voluntary disregard of the need to use reasonable care, which is likely to cause foreseeable grave injury or harm to persons, property, or . State consumer protection laws differ radically and change quickly, he warns. (For example, the law cited in Gonzalez was rescinded during the most recent Texas legislative session.) Some statutes may define a violation as falsely advertising "safe, comfortable rooms" in a crime-ridden building. Others may require a renter to prove that the landowner offered specific safety assurances. Attorneys with similar cases should also consider filing for fraud under a state's deceptive trade practices act. According to attorney Gilbert Deitch of Atlanta, "An action for fraudulent misrepresentation misrepresentation In law, any false or misleading expression of fact, usually with the intent to deceive or defraud. It most commonly occurs in insurance and real-estate contracts. False advertising may also constitute misrepresentation. may arise where [a landlord] promises security when none is provided" or when a landlord "assures prospective tenants that there has never been crime on the premises when, in fact, there has been." (Gilbert H. Deitch & George R. Ference, Landlord liability for apartment security, TRIAL, Mar. 1997, at 27,28.) "We're not saying that owners should be held responsible just because something happened," said Carpenter. "The test is whether they knowingly misrepresented the situation. Did they say the property was safe when they knew it was not?" A landlord may say, "We don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. whether it's safe or not." That's not misrepresentation, said Carpenter, but it may be negligence. Under Texas law, a plaintiff must choose which damages to accept when awards are made under multiple claims. Thus, the plaintiff in Gonzalez ultimately rejected the treble damages in favor of a gross negligence award that included punitive damages Monetary compensation awarded to an injured party that goes beyond that which is necessary to compensate the individual for losses and that is intended to punish the wrongdoer. . "Nonetheless, I would definitely advise lawyers to look at their state consumer protection laws," said Carpenter. "If a suitable law does not exist, try to get one, because these laws are not just pro-plaintiff, they are pro-consumer." |
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