May

Absent “ ‘special circumstances,’ ” the owner or bailee of a motor vehicle has no duty to protect third persons against the possibility a thief will steal the vehicle and injure them with it. (Avis Rent a Car System, Inc. v. Superior Court (1993) 12 Cal.App.4th 221 [ 15 Cal.Rptr.2d 711 ] (Avis).) Leaving the keys in the ignition, and the vehicle unlocked and unattended, is not by itself one of these special circumstances. (Ibid.) The issue here is whether additional factors exist sufficient to change this from an ordinary key-in-the-ignition case into one that fits the special circumstances exception to the general mle. The trial court concluded there were no special circumstances, and so granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment. We agree and will affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

The essential facts are undisputed.

Don and Denise Lillegard own Nine Plus Properties, Inc., which, in turn, owns and operates a Maaco Auto Painting & Body Works franchise in Modesto (Maaco). Maaco has a shop where it repairs and paints cars and trucks, and an adjoining storage lot where it parks the vehicles when it is not working on them. There usually are about 40 vehicles in the lot,…