MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

Set for hearing on Tuesday, March 1, 2016, Line 6, DEFENDANT DIANE CONNELL's MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

Defendant Diane Connell's motion for summary judgment is denied. Defendant fails to maintain her initial burden of production and, even if she did, there is a triable issue whether she breached her duty of care to plaintiff. A landlord "has an affirmative duty to exercise ordinary care to keep the premises in a reasonably safe condition, and therefore must inspect them or take other proper means to ascertain their condition. And if, by the exercise of reasonable care, he would have discovered the dangerous condition, he is liable." (Portillo v. Aiassa (1994) 27 Cal.App.4th 1128, 1134.) Defendant knew or should have known that tenants routinely smoked in the common areas, there were no trash receptacles in those areas, and tenants customarily discarded their cigarette butts in an unsafe manner. Mr. Alonso moved onto the pr........