Texas Negligent Security Law: The Five Timberwalk Factors & UDRPA Chapter 33 Apportionment

Overview of Texas Law & Liability Framework

When a tenant, hotel guest, or shopper is shot, assaulted, or robbed on commercial property in Texas, the landowner's duty to provide security is governed by the Texas Supreme Court's five-factor foreseeability test in Timberwalk Apartments v. Cain and the risk-utility analysis in UDR Texas Properties v. Petrie.

Key Texas Statutory Rules & Liability Standards

• General Rule & Foreseeable Crime Exception: Ordinarily, a Texas property owner has no duty to protect invitees from third-party criminal acts. However, one who controls the premises owes a duty to use ordinary care to protect invitees from criminal acts of third parties if the owner knows or has reason to know of an unreasonable and foreseeable risk of harm.
• The Five Timberwalk Foreseeability Factors (972 S.W.2d at 757–59): Texas courts evaluate whether violent crime on the property was foreseeable using five mandatory factors: (1) Proximity (crimes on the property or in its immediate vicinity); (2) Recency (how recently the prior crimes occurred, typically within 2 years); (3) Frequency (how often crimes occurred); (4) Similarity (prior violent personal crimes vs. mere property crimes like auto burglary); and (5) Publicity (whether the owner knew or should have known of the prior crimes).
• Unreasonable Risk Requirement (UDR Texas Properties v. Petrie): In UDR Texas Properties, L.P. v. Petrie, 517 S.W.3d 98 (Tex. 2017), the Texas Supreme Court held that satisfying the five Timberwalk foreseeability factors is not enough by itself—courts must also weigh the burden and feasibility of preventing the crime (unreasonableness of the risk).
• Imminent Brawl Exception (Del Lago Partners v. Smith): Even without prior historical crime statistics, a bar or resort owner owes a duty to intervene when it has actual and direct knowledge that a violent confrontation is imminently brewing on the premises (Del Lago Partners, Inc. v. Smith, 307 S.W.3d 762 (Tex. 2010)).

Texas Court Procedure, Crash Reporting & Evidentiary Deadlines

Note that under CPRC § 33.004, premises defendants in Texas routinely designate the unknown or convicted shooter/assailant as a Responsible Third Party (RTP), asking the jury to assign the bulk of percentage fault to the criminal rather than the apartment complex.

Compensatory & Exemplary Damages Available Under Texas Law

Wrongful death and survival damages (CPRC Ch. 71), catastrophic gunshot/trauma medical bills (§ 41.0105), PTSD and mental anguish, permanent disability, and lost earning capacity.