The 4-to-3 ruling by the state's high court is a clear victory for building owners and managers, many of whom have been sued after a tenant or visitor was attacked on their property. The decision can now be cited in similar suits in other states.

The suit stemmed from an attack on Marianne, a Federal Express employee who was making a delivery at a crime-plagued apartment complex in LA's gritty Bellflower area in 1996. Three men beat the woman and tried to remove her clothing, but ran off when other neighbors started shouting. The men were never apprehended.

Saelzler sued the apartment's management firm, privately held Advanced Group 400, and her attorney presented evidence of several dozen crimes that were committed on the property in the year before the attack took place. An LA Superior Court judge first ruled in favor of the management firm and the property's owners, but that decision was reversed by a state Appeals Court. The State Supreme Court's decision, which was quietly handed down late last week, reverses the Appeals Court's ruling.

One factor that apparently weighed heavily in the Supreme Court's majority ruling is that the owners had already taken steps to improve security at the project before the attack. Lawyers for the owner and management firm showed that security guards had been hired months before the attack, broken locks and gates were repaired quickly and that the building manager had evicted several tenants who were involved in gang activity or other types of crime.

In short, the defense argued, even the presence of security guards and sturdy locks cannot guarantee total safety. Several colleges and universities—-many of which also have been sued after attacks on their campuses—-supported the owner and management firm in the latest lawsuit, Saelzler vs. Advanced Group 400.