The families of three shooting victims have filed a series of lawsuits against the owners of Cedar Grove Apartments, an affordable housing property in Miami Gardens, Florida, alleging that negligent security on the property led to two deaths and one injury from gun violence over the course of a single year.
The owners, San Diego-based Fairfield Cedar Grove LP and FF Properties LP, are associated with Fairfield Residential, a San Diego-based national multifamily owner and operator that purchased the property in 2022, according to the South Florida Business Journal. With 42,700 market-rate and affordable units under management across the country at 184 properties, it was ranked No. 40 on the National Multifamily Housing Council’s Top 50 Managers list in 2024. Fairfield did not respond to a request for comment from Multifamily Dive.
On Jan. 4, 2023, a 27-year old man was shot and killed at Cedar Grove Apartments while visiting a friend, according to the Miami Herald. His family filed their lawsuit against Fairfield Cedar Grove on March 18, 2023. Additional defendants, also owners of Cedar Grove Apartments associated with Fairfield Residential, were later dropped from the lawsuit.
Six months later, on July 24, a 19-year old man was shot and killed at the property. He was a resident of the Cedar Grove Apartments, and his family’s lease was reportedly terminated two days after his death, according to The Miami Herald. The family filed their lawsuit against Fairfield Cedar Grove on Oct. 31, 2023.
At the end of the year, on Dec. 31, 2023, an individual identified as a 19-year-old man by the Miami Herald was shot on the Cedar Grove Apartments property and survived. The man and his family filed their suit against Fairfield Cedar Grove and FF Properties on Aug. 31 of this year.
All three families are represented by the Haggard Law Firm in Coral Gables, Florida. Details of the shootings are still under investigation, according to The Miami Herald.
Reasonable care
All three lawsuits state that the defendants knew, or in the exercise of reasonable care should have known, that the property was located in a high-crime area. “Numerous violent criminal acts including, but not limited to, assaults, muggings, burglaries, murders and robberies, occurred on or around the premises of its residential complex, and throughout adjacent areas,” the lawsuits read.
Under Florida law, owners and operators of multifamily properties have a presumption against liability for crimes committed by third parties only if the property has specific security measures such as lighting and security cameras.
The suits claim that Fairfield Cedar Grove had a duty to protect its tenants, their guests and the public from crimes on the property. They say the property failed to provide adequate security personnel, to warn its residents of the possibility of crime, to provide adequate lighting or security camera coverage or to create a security plan, among other points.
The March 2023 case is expected to be ready for trial by March 30, 2025. Trials have not been scheduled for the October 2023 or August 2024 cases. Each suit is seeking damages of over $50,000.
