Bank and ATM Assault Claims in Georgia

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An assault or robbery at a bank branch or an automated teller machine is, for a cause of action arising on or after April 21, 2025, a negligent security claim under Georgia’s 2025 article, OCGA 51-3-50 through 51-3-57, when an owner, occupier, or security contractor is sued over it. The article’s rules on who counts as an owner or security contractor, where the crime happened, and how prior crimes nearby are counted shape a claim at a bank or a machine.

Who Can Be Sued

The article reaches “any claim against an owner or occupier, or against a security contractor” that sounds in tort or nuisance, seeks damages for bodily injury or wrongful death, and arises from an alleged failure to keep the premises and approaches safe from the wrongful conduct of third persons (OCGA 51-3-50(1)). An owner or occupier is any person that owns, leases, occupies, operates, maintains, or manages real property, and the premises are the real property that person owns, leases, occupies, operates, maintains, or manages (OCGA 51-3-50(2), (4)). A “security contractor” is “any person that contracts with an owner or occupier to provide protective or security services upon any premises or any director, officer, employee, or agent of such person” (OCGA 51-3-50(6)). A security contractor that “assumes and undertakes a duty to invitees and licensees to keep all or part of a premises of an owner or occupier safe from the wrongful conduct of a third person” can be liable for negligent security only as an owner or occupier would be, to the same extent and under the same limits and provisions (OCGA 51-3-57(a)).

Where the Crime Happened

Location matters at a machine, because a machine can sit on a lot, a walkway, or a building the bank does not control. The article bars negligent security liability for an injury to a person who was not on the owner’s or occupier’s premises, and for wrongful conduct that did not occur on the premises and in a place from which the owner or occupier had the legal right and authority to exclude the third person (OCGA 51-3-54(2), (3)). The lease, easement, or license under which a machine sits, and who maintained the lighting and lot around it, can bear on both questions.

Prior Crimes Nearby

An invitee must prove, among the article’s other elements, that the attack was reasonably foreseeable, either through a particularized warning of imminent wrongful conduct or because the owner or occupier reasonably should have known that a third person was reasonably likely to engage in such conduct on the premises (OCGA 51-3-51(1)). The second route rests on prior occurrences of substantially similar wrongful conduct of which the owner or occupier had actual knowledge, including occurrences “upon the property adjoining the premises, or otherwise occurring within 500 yards of the premises,” or prior similar conduct by the same third person, if the owner or occupier knew or should have known, by clear and convincing evidence, that the third person was or would be on the premises and had actual knowledge of that prior conduct (OCGA 51-3-51(1)(B)). The invitee must also tie the attack to a specific physical condition of the premises known to the owner or occupier, show a failure of ordinary care to remedy or mitigate it, and prove proximate cause (OCGA 51-3-51(2)-(5)).

Fault Assigned to the Robber

A trier of fact that finds an owner, occupier, or security contractor liable must reasonably apportion fault to the third person whose wrongful conduct caused the injury, and a verdict that fails to do so is set aside for a retrial of liability and damages; an apportionment is presumed unreasonable, subject to rebuttal, if the total percentage assigned to all such third persons is less than the total assigned to everyone else who did not engage in wrongful conduct (OCGA 51-3-56(1), (3)). Damages apportioned among those liable are not a joint liability (OCGA 51-12-33(b)).

For example, imagine a jury that finds total damages of $200,000, assigns no fault to the plaintiff, and assigns 40 percent of the fault to the robber, 45 percent to a bank, and 15 percent to its security contractor. The bank’s share is $90,000 and the contractor’s is $30,000. Because the robber’s 40 percent is less than the combined 60 percent assigned to the bank and the contractor, the presumption in OCGA 51-3-56(3) arises.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a security company be held liable for more than the bank?
No. “In no event shall a security contractor be subject to liability for negligent security to an extent greater than the liability for negligent security of an owner or occupier” (OCGA 51-3-57(a)), and a security contractor is liable for negligent security only as that section provides (OCGA 51-3-57(b)).

Does the article affect the bank’s contract claim against its security company?
No. The section does not “limit or otherwise affect any claim or remedy of an owner or occupier for breach of contract” (OCGA 51-3-57(c)).

What makes an earlier crime “substantially similar”?
The earlier conduct has to resemble the conduct behind the claim closely enough, in its nature and character, how dangerous it was, how near it was, where and when it happened, and its circumstances, that a reasonable person in the owner’s or occupier’s position would have apprehended the later conduct (OCGA 51-3-50(5)).

What counts as a particularized warning?
Information actually known to the owner or occupier and deemed credible by it, which causes it to understand consciously that a third person is likely to engage imminently in wrongful conduct posing a clear danger on the premises, and which is specific as to the third person’s identity, the nature and dangerousness of the conduct, and its location, time, and circumstances (OCGA 51-3-50(3)).

What law governs a robbery before April 21, 2025?
The Act provides that its negligent security provisions apply only to causes of action arising on or after its effective date and that earlier causes of action are governed by prior law (SB 68, Section 9(b)), under which an owner or occupier owes invitees ordinary care in keeping the premises and approaches safe (OCGA 51-3-1).

  • OCGA 51-3-50(1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6); OCGA 51-3-51; OCGA 51-3-54(2), (3); OCGA 51-3-56(1), (3); OCGA 51-3-57(a), (b), (c)
  • OCGA 51-12-33(b); OCGA 51-3-1
  • Senate Bill 68 (2025), as passed, Section 9(b)

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about the Georgia negligent security article as it bears on assaults at banks and automated teller machines. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Liability depends on the facts of each incident and on the date the cause of action arose. Anyone injured in such an incident should consult a licensed Georgia attorney promptly about the particular situation.

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