Razoumovitch

INTRODUCTION

Having accidentally locked himself out of his apartment, and unable to obtain assistance from the managers of the building, Arkadi Razoumovitch went to the roof of the building and attempted to drop down onto the balcony of his top-floor apartment to enter his unit. He was unsuccessful, instead falling to the ground and suffering injuries. Razoumovitch filed this action for negligence and premises liability against 726 Hudson Avenue, LLC, Kohen Investments LLC, Shahab Kohen, and Brianna Camitses (the 726 Hudson defendants), the entities and individuals who owned and managed the apartment building. The 726 Hudson defendants moved for summary judgment, arguing Razoumovitch could not establish that they owed him a duty of care or that their alleged breaches of that duty caused his injuries. The trial court agreed with them on both issues and granted the motion. We disagree with both conclusions: California law imposes a duty on everyone, including landlords, to exercise reasonable care, and the 726 Hudson defendants have not shown public policy considerations justify departing from that general duty; and causation, as it is in most cases, is a factual issue. Therefore,…