Castaneda

Defendants George Olsher, Paule Olsher and P&G Enterprises (collectively Olsher) own a mobilehome park in which plaintiff Ernest Castaneda lived. Plaintiff was shot and injured while he was a bystander to a gang confrontation involving a resident of the mobilehome across the street from his. He sued Olsher contending Olsher had breached a duty not to rent to known gang members or to evict them when they harass other tenants. The superior court granted a defense motion for nonsuit after presentation of plaintiff’s case, but the Court of Appeal reversed.

*1210 We conclude the grant of nonsuit was proper. Landlords, including mobilehome park owners, ordinarily have no duty to reject prospective tenants they believe, or have reason to believe, are gang members. To recognize such a duty would tend to encourage arbitrary housing discrimination and would place landlords in the untenable situation of facing potential liability whichever choice they make about a prospective tenant. With regard to eviction, we agree that a residential tenant’s behavior and known criminal associations may, in some circumstances, create such a high level of foreseeable danger to others that the…

This is yet another case in which this court has had to grapple with the issue of a business owner’s obligation to undertake efforts to protect others from the criminal acts of third parties. Instead of providing much-needed clarity, this court’s decisions in this area have engendered confusion. The core of this confusion is the improper intermingling of two distinct concepts—duty, a question for the court, and breach of that duty, a question for the jury. In treating breach as if it were part of the duty analysis, and thus an issue of law for the trial court to decide, *1224 the court usurps the role of the jury as trier of fact. (See Kentucky Fried Chicken of Cal., Inc. v. Superior Court (1997) 14 Cal.4th 814, 833-844 [ 59 Cal.Rptr.2d 756 , 927 P.2d 1260 ] (dis. opn. of Kennard, J.).)

Unlike the majority here, I would have the jury, not the court, decide whether defendant mobilehome park owners breached their duty to protect tenants from gang-related criminal acts. I agree, however, with the majority that under the multifactor test this court established in Rowland v. Christian (1968) 69 Cal.2d 108, 113 [ 70 Cal.Rptr. 97 , 443 P.2d 561 ], policy considerations support the…

Defendants George Olsher, Paule Olsher and P & G Enterprises (collectively Olsher) own a mobilehome park in which plaintiff Ernest Castaneda lived. Plaintiff was shot and injured while he was a bystander to a gang confrontation involving a resident of the mobilehome across the street from his. He sued Olsher contending Olsher had breached a duty not to rent to known gang members or to evict them when they harass other tenants. The superior court granted a defense motion for nonsuit after presentation of plaintiffs case, but the Court of Appeal reversed.

We conclude the grant of nonsuit was proper. Landlords, including mobilehome park owners, ordinarily have no duty to reject prospective tenants they believe, or have reason to believe, are gang members. To recognize such a duty would tend to encourage arbitrary housing discrimination and would place landlords in the untenable situation of facing potential liability whichever choice they make about a prospective tenant. With regard to eviction, we agree that a residential tenant's behavior and known criminal associations may, in some circumstances, create such a high level of foreseeable danger to others that the…