Wiener

This lawsuit is rooted in tragedy. Steven Abrams drove his car through a four-foot high chain link fence and onto the playground of the Southcoast Early Childhood Learning Center (Southcoast), with the intent of killing children playing there. He succeeded in killing two, Brandon Wiener and Sierra Soto. Plaintiffs Aaron and Pamela Wiener, the parents of Brandon, and Eric and Cindy Soto, the parents of Sierra, sued defendants Southcoast and the owner of the property, First Baptist Church of Costa Mesa (the Church), alleging negligence and premises liability. [1] The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of defendants, concluding that without notice of prior similar crimes in the area, defendants could not have foreseen Abrams' criminal act and thus had no duty to protect against it.

We reverse the judgment. For purposes of evaluating whether a duty is owed, the issue of "foreseeability" refers to whether the defendants' alleged negligent conduct created a foreseeable risk of a particular kind of harm, not whether the specific conduct of a particular third party wrongdoer could be anticipated. In this case, the defendants' alleged negligence was their failure…