Court Rules Landlord Can be Tried for Child’s Fall
By Michelle Logsdon - January 16, 2002The California 2nd District Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 10, that a landlord may be liable for accidents resulting from a problem that he told a tenant would be fixed.
The decision comes in the case of White v. Contreras. DeJoure White was three-years-old when he fell out of his bedroom window in his third-story apartment. White sustained severe injuries leaving him permanently physically and mentally disabled.
The boy lived in the apartment with his mother Tasha Norris and his father Derrick White. The building was owned and managed by Wilfredo Contreras and Con Pro Serve Property Management Service.
Around noon on June 10, 2000, Norris put her son down for a nap in his bedroom. Norris left the room to complete some chores around the house. DeJoure’s father arrived home about 3:00 in the afternoon. Norris was sweeping just outside of the boy’s bedroom. When White did not see his son in the bedroom he looked out the window and saw the child on the ground below.
The window had a stationary glass pane in the center and two sliding panes on each side. The left pane had a screen but the right pane did not. Derrick White had asked Contreras to install the missing screen, explaining that he was fearful of DeJoure falling out of the window. Contreras responded, “Don’t worry about it, we’re gonna [sic] do it.” Contreras was at the apartment five times in six months but never fixed the screen.
White said he did not fix the screen himself because Norris had signed an agreement stating that repairs could only be performed on an apartment by the owner or manager of the unit.
Lawyers for Contreras argued that the child’s injuries were the fault of the parents because they were negligent in placing a dresser near the window making it more accessible to DeJoure. They also said a screen would not have been sufficient protection to keep a child from falling out the window.
White’s attorney, Arash Homampour, convinced the appellate panel that Contreras had a duty to fix the screen because he said he would. The court reversed the summary judgment and Contreras will stand trial. Homampour told adjustercom.com that he did not have any further comment on the case. | 
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