Ozaki v. Association of Apartment Owners of Discovery Bay

Peter Sataraka (defendant) talked his way past a Discovery Bay condominium security guard, followed resident Cynthia Dennis into her apartment, and murdered her, resulting in his own murder conviction; Dennis's mother and sister (plaintiffs) sued both Sataraka and Discovery Bay (defendant), and a jury apportioned fault 92% to Sataraka's intentional conduct, 5% to Dennis's own negligence, and 3% to Discovery Bay's negligence. Discovery Bay sought final judgment in its favor under a state contributory-negligence statute providing that if the victim's apportioned negligence exceeds the defendant's, judgment goes to the defendant, but an intermediate appellate court held the statute inapplicable because the case involved an intentional tort, instead applying pure comparative negligence to hold Discovery Bay jointly and severally liable for 95% of the fault, and the state supreme court granted certiorari.