Texas Premises Liability Lawsuits for Sexual Assault: When Property Owners and Employers Are Responsible
Reviewed by Anna Greenberg, sexual assault trial attorney at Blizzard Greenberg PLLC.
In short: If you were sexually assaulted on a business’s property, you may be able to sue the property owner or employer — not just the individual attacker — when their negligence helped make the assault possible. The two main claims are negligent security (the property was unsafe and the danger was foreseeable) and negligent hiring or supervision (the business put an unsafe person in a position of trust). Texas law allows these civil cases even when no criminal charges are filed, and they use a lower burden of proof.
If you were sexually assaulted on someone else’s property — at an apartment complex, a hotel, a spa, a parking garage, or anywhere a business invited you to be — what happened to you was not your fault, and you may have legal options beyond a criminal case. You deserved to be safe in that place. When a property owner or employer ignores a known danger and someone is harmed, Texas law can hold that business accountable, and our premises liability sexual assault lawyers represent survivors across Texas. 
Sexual violence is far more common than most people realize — an estimated 443,635 people age 12 and older experience it each year in the United States, according to RAINN. When it happens on a business’s property, the law often looks beyond the attacker to ask whether the business did its part to keep people safe — whether through inadequate security on the premises or the negligent hiring and supervision of someone it placed in a position of trust.
You don’t have to relive the details of your trauma to understand your rights. The questions that matter in a civil case are about the business’s conduct: What did they know? What risks did they ignore? What reasonable steps did they fail to take?
Two Ways to Hold a Business Accountable: Negligent Security and Negligent Hiring
Negligent Security: When a Property Owner Fails to Protect You
Property owners have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect the people they invite onto their premises from foreseeable criminal activity. When they fail to meet that duty and an assault results, they can be held liable for the harm.
The word foreseeable is central. Texas law does not make a business responsible simply because a crime occurred on its property. It makes a business responsible when it knew, or should have known, that this kind of harm was a real and unreasonable risk — and did nothing meaningful about it.
Common security failures include:
- Broken or unsecured gates at apartment complexes
- Broken, propped, or unmonitored exterior doors, or failed key-card and entry systems
- Lack of security personnel in high-crime areas
- Poor lighting in parking garages, stairwells, or walkways
- Non-functioning or unmonitored security cameras
- Uncontrolled key access or failure to manage master keys
- Failure to respond to prior crime reports or tenant complaints
- Failure to warn tenants or guests about a known threat in the area
Negligent Hiring and Supervision
Some assaults don’t happen because a location was physically unsafe. They happen because a business put the wrong person in a position of access and trust. Employers can be held liable when they:
- Failed to conduct a reasonable background check before hiring
- Knew or should have known an employee had a history of misconduct
- Placed an employee in a role with unsupervised access to clients or guests despite red flags
- Ignored coworker or customer complaints about an employee’s behavior
- Retained an employee after credible allegations of sexual misconduct
We see this pattern across many industries:
- A massage therapist with prior complaints kept on staff by a franchise spa
- A healthcare worker with a history of boundary violations given unsupervised patient access
- A hotel or rideshare worker with a relevant criminal history placed in a trust-based role
- A hotel front desk agent, maintenance worker or property manager with master-key access
These theories often overlap, and in both the lawsuit is against the business or property owner — not only the individual who committed the assault.
When Does a Property Owner or Employer Become Liable?
Liability turns on what the business knew, or should have known, and what it failed to do about it. For a negligent security claim, that usually means prior similar crimes on or near the property, ignored complaints or warnings, or broken safety measures left unrepaired. For a negligent hiring, retention, or supervision claim, it means red flags in an employee’s history — a skipped background check, prior complaints, or misconduct allegations — that the business failed to act on.
In Texas, courts evaluate whether a crime was “foreseeable” to a property owner using a framework the Texas Supreme Court established in Timberwalk Apartments, Partners, Inc. v. Cain, 972 S.W.2d 749 (Tex. 1998) — a case that itself arose from a sexual assault at an apartment complex. Courts weigh five factors: how close prior crimes were to the property (proximity), how recently they occurred, how frequently they occurred, how similar they were to the assault in question, and how publicized they were. The stronger the pattern of prior, similar, nearby crime that the owner ignored, the stronger the case that the assault was foreseeable and the owner had a duty to prevent it.
Where These Assaults Happen: Apartments, Hotels, Spas, and More
These cases arise in many settings, including:
- Apartment complexes
- Hotels and motels
- Parking garages and shopping centers
- Nightclubs and bars
- College housing
- Massage and spa
- Gyms and fitness centers
- Hospitals, clinics, and medical facilities
- Schools and youth organizations
- Rideshare and transportation services
- Event arenas and stadiums
What to Do After an Assault on a Business’s Property
There is no single right way to respond to something like this, and you get to make these decisions on your own terms. If it helps, these are steps that can protect both your wellbeing and your legal options:
- Get to a safe place and reach out to someone you trust.
- Seek medical care as soon as possible — it matters for your health and can document what happened.
- Preserve what you can. Photos of the scene (a broken gate, a propped door, poor lighting), names of anyone present, and any messages or reports can become important evidence of a property’s failures.
- Report it if and when you choose. You control whether and when to involve police; a civil claim does not depend on a criminal case, but it can help hold the perpetrator accountable and prevent harm to others.
- Tell a trusted loved one. Sometimes, feelings of shame or guilt creep in, but sexual assault is never your fault. Reach out to a trusted friend or family member who can support you through this difficult time.
- Talk to a lawyer about whether a property owner or employer may share responsibility. A consultation is free, confidential and carries no obligation.
You don’t need to have done all of these things to have a case. Survivors come to us at every stage, and we can help you understand your options from wherever you are now.
How We Investigate Negligent Security and Negligent Hiring Cases
Holding a business accountable takes more than describing what happened — it takes evidence that the company knew about a risk and failed to act. In these cases, we often:
- Pull police call logs and crime reports for the property and surrounding area to establish a pattern of prior, similar crime
- Gather prior tenant, guest, or customer complaints about safety or about a specific employee
- Review the property’s security measures — lighting, cameras, gates, locks, and key control — and whether they worked
- Examine hiring and personnel records, including background checks, past complaints, and disciplinary history
- Consult security and industry experts on what reasonable precautions the business should have taken
This is how the abstract legal question — was this foreseeable, and did the business act reasonably? — becomes a concrete, documented case.
Sexual Assault Cases We Handle Against Businesses and Property Owners
We may be able to help if:
- The assault occurred on commercial property, or involved an employee acting in a professional role
- There was inadequate or failed security, or a failure to properly screen or supervise staff
- The property owner or employer knew or should have known of the risk
We typically cannot help if:
- The assault occurred inside a private residence with no business connection
- There is no property owner or employer negligence involved
- It was solely a domestic dispute with no premises or employment issue
If you’re not sure whether your situation fits, that’s exactly what a confidential consultation is for. You don’t have to figure it out alone.
Criminal Charges vs. a Civil Lawsuit: Can You Do Both?
These are two separate processes, and they can move forward independently:
- A criminal prosecution is brought by the state to punish the individual attacker.
- A civil lawsuit seeks financial compensation from the negligent property owner or employer.
You can pursue a civil claim even if criminal charges are still pending, were dropped, or were never filed at all. A civil case also uses a lower burden of proof than a criminal case — the question is whether it is more likely than not that the business’s negligence contributed to the harm, not whether guilt is proven “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
What Compensation Can a Survivor Recover?
Depending on the facts, a civil claim may seek compensation for:
- Emotional distress
- Therapy and mental health treatment
- Medical expenses
- Lost wages
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of enjoyment of life and impact on personal relationships
- Punitive damages, where the conduct was especially reckless or willful — which can be particularly relevant in negligent hiring and retention cases
Our Experience Holding Hotels, Spas, and Employers Accountable
Our firm has held large institutions accountable in exactly these kinds of cases, focusing on the security failures, employer negligence, and patterns of ignored warning signs that allowed harm to occur. Representative matters include:
- A lawsuit against Aramark, a large employer, over claims of negligent hiring and supervision — coverage of which appeared in USA TODAY.
- A claim against an Austin Massage Envy location involving alleged negligent hiring and retention by a spa franchise.
- A premises liability / inadequate security claim against an Austin apartment complex following an assault by an intruder.
Our firm also secured a record $44 million verdict against Hilton for facilitating the sexual assault of a hotel guest — one of the largest results of its kind and a reflection of how seriously we pursue accountability against negligent businesses.
Talk to a Texas Sexual Assault Lawyer — Confidentially
If you’re considering a consultation, here’s what we want you to know:
- It is free.
- It is confidential.
- There is no obligation.
- You control the pace of the conversation.
- We handle the legal process so you can focus on healing.
If you need immediate support, the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline offers free, confidential help 24/7 at 800-656-HOPE (4673). Speaking with us about a possible case is separate from that support — and you’re welcome to do either, or both, at your own pace.
Reaching out is simply a conversation about your options — nothing more, until you decide otherwise. We represent survivors in Houston, Dallas, Austin, and across Texas. Contact us for a confidential, no-obligation case review.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue a property owner or business for a sexual assault that happened on their premises?
Possibly. If the assault was foreseeable — for example, because of prior similar crimes nearby or ignored safety complaints — and the owner failed to take reasonable security measures, Texas law may allow you to hold that business accountable. The claim is against the property owner, not only the individual attacker.
Can I sue a business if one of their employees assaulted me?
Yes, in many cases. If the employer failed to screen the employee, ignored red flags or prior complaints, or kept the person in a position of trust after misconduct allegations, the business itself may be liable under negligent hiring, retention, or supervision theories.
The attacker was arrested. Can I still file a civil lawsuit?
Yes. A civil case is separate from the criminal case and seeks financial compensation rather than criminal punishment. You can pursue a civil claim whether criminal charges are pending, were dropped, or were never filed — and a civil case uses a lower standard of proof.
What if there were prior crimes or complaints at the property?
That can be very important. Evidence of prior similar crimes nearby, ignored tenant or guest complaints, or known safety problems goes directly to whether the assault was foreseeable — a key question in Texas negligent security cases.
What is negligent hiring, and how does it apply to my case?
Negligent hiring means a business failed to take reasonable care in who it hired or kept on staff — for instance, skipping a background check or retaining an employee after credible misconduct complaints. If that failure put an unsafe person in a position to harm you, the employer may be liable.
How long do I have to file a lawsuit?
Texas sets deadlines (called statutes of limitations) for filing civil claims, and they differ depending on the facts — including whether the survivor was an adult or a child at the time. Under Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code § 16.0045, adult survivors of sexual assault generally have five years to file a civil claim, while survivors who were children at the time of the abuse have significantly longer — up to 30 years after the claim accrues. Because these deadlines are fact-specific, the accrual date can be complicated, and there are important exceptions, the only reliable way to know your deadline is to speak with an attorney as soon as possible.
