Walker v. Harris

This wrongful death action involves the duty of care a lessor owes to persons injured on the leased property by the criminal acts of third parties. The trial court granted summary judgment for the lessors, but the court of appeals reversed. 1995 WL 477560. We hold that the lessors, Deborah and William Walker, owed no legal duty to the decedent, Ronald Harris. We reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and render judgment that Harris’s parents, Joyce and Donald Harris, take nothing.

The Walkers owned and operated two of ten separate fourplex apartment units in Brookshire, Texas. In 1990,…