In a personal injury negligence case involving a slip and fall on leased property, the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court, relying on the precedential decision of Baldwin Shields v. Ramslee Motors, affirmed the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to a property owner on the basis that a commercial property owner can properly delegate the duty to remove snow and ice to a tenant. Clark & Fox was instrumental in obtaining the important holding in Ramslee by taking the case all the way to the New Jersey Supreme Court to secure liability protection for commercial landowners who
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Archives for Premises Liability
NJ Appeals Court Finds Mode-of-Operation Principle Applicable to Self-Service Bagel Shop in Premises Liability Claim
In a premises liability case involving a slip and fall, the New Jersey Appellate Division reversed the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to a business owner on the basis that the court failed to apply the mode-of-operation standard to the facts of the case. In Aly v. A&H Bagels (unpublished), the Appellate Court determined that the self-service nature of the bagel store required the court to examine the store’s duty of care differently because of the inherent hazard caused by that type of business operation. In this case, Defendant owned a bagel shop where customers purchased products, such as
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New York Court Applies Storm-in-Progress Doctrine and Grants Summary Judgment for Property Owner in Slip and Fall Case
A New York State Court has granted defendants’ motions for summary judgment in a slip and fall case after application of the “ongoing storm” or “storm-in-progress” doctrine. The Court held that property owners, tenants-in-possession, and snow removal contractors are not liable for accidents caused by snow or ice that accumulates during a storm until a reasonable amount of time has passed following the cessation of the storm. Further, the Court held that a brief “lull” in the severity of a continuing storm does not impose a duty to remove the snow and ice until the storm ceases in its entirety.
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New Jersey Appellate Court Excludes Expert Testimony as Net Opinion
An Appellate Division panel in New Jersey has affirmed a lower court order barring a plaintiff’s expert from testifying at trial because his conclusions were net opinion, offering no basis for the opinion that a sidewalk was a dangerous condition at the time of a slip and fall. In Fisher v. Yum Yum Bagel Café, plaintiff, a 75-year-old woman, was vacationing in New York City and staying in Cliffside Park. After returning from a trip to the city, she was walking to her residence when her “right foot was caught” on a raised edge surround a handicap ramp. As she
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Superior Court of Pennsylvania Vacates Trial Court’s Judgment and Remands Case for Judgment in Favor of Defendants in Philadelphia Eagles Restroom Fight Premises Liability Case
In Patrick Pearson v. Philadelphia Eagles, LLC, Eagles Stadium Operators, LLC, and Executive Services Management Inc., the Superior Court of Pennsylvania vacated the trial court’s judgment and reversed an order denying the Motion for Summary Judgment of Defendants Philadelphia Eagles and their security staff provider in a case seeking damages from injuries sustained during a restroom altercation. At the trial stage, the jury returned a verdict for Mr. Pearson, finding the Defendants negligent in their security program and awarding Plaintiff$700,000 in damages. The Superior Court disagreed with the trial court and found that, when applying the standard ofnegligence for the
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New Jersey Appellate Court Reverses Trial Court’s Holding That Plaintiff Could Not Demonstrate Proximate Cause for Her Accident in Personal Injury Suit
In Winstead v. Yorkshire Village, the New Jersey Appellate Division reversed the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to a landlord in a personal injury suit. Plaintiff brought suit against the landlord after she was injured by a malfunctioning automatic exterior entry door at her apartment building. The trial court determined that the malfunctioning door was not the proximate cause of Plaintiff’s injuries because Plaintiff did not have a reasonable fear of being struck by it. The appellate court disagreed and held that a genuine issue of disputed material fact precluded entry of summary judgment for the landlord. Plaintiff was
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New York Trial Court Denies Bar Owner’s Motion for Summary Judgment After Plaintiff’s Expert Affidavit Creates Fact Issues Regarding Reasonableness of Security Measures at Bar
In Gaskin v. OBMP-NY LLC, the New York Supreme Court considered a personal injury suit against a bar owner, his landlord and the bar’s security company for injuries arising from a fight that broke out in the bar. OBMP-NY, the bar owner who leased the property from landlord 701 West 135, orally contracted 5Points to provide security services for the bar. Plaintiff sought to impose liability on 701 West 135 under the theory that the landlord could not avoid liability under Real Property Law § 231, which provides that the owner of real property who knowingly leases it to be
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Eastern District of Pennsylvania Grants Summary Judgment to Store in Slip and Fall Negligence Action
In Thomas v. Family Dollar Stores of Pennsylvania, LLC, the district court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania considered a premises liability action brought by a shopper due to injuries she received when she slipped and fell in a thick, yellow substance on the floor of an aisle at a Family Dollar retail store. The court granted summary judgment to the store, holding that Family Dollar owed no duty to the shopper and that no evidence existed that could show Family Dollar had constructive notice of the spill prior to the shopper’s fall. Plaintiff argued that Family Dollar was negligent
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New Jersey Appellate Division Affirms Summary Judgment for Defendant in Premises Liability Action Finding That No Dangerous Conditions Existed That Caused Plaintiff’s Accident and That Plaintiff Was Aware of the Conditions and Possible Risks of the Property
In Platvoet v. Mancini, the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, considered a premises liability case arising from the plaintiff’s fall into her mother’s pool while pulling a tarp over the water. The trial court granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment and subsequently denied plaintiff’s motion for reconsideration of the judgment. Plaintiff appealed and argued that there were genuine issues of material fact regarding the presence of a dangerous condition on the property that precluded the entry of summary judgment. Her argument was based on competing expert engineering reports produced by plaintiff and defendant about whether a dangerous condition
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New Jersey Appellate Division Affirms Summary Judgment for Defense in Premises Liability Suit
In MacKenn v. Agios Haralambos Corp., the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, considered a premises liability case arising from the plaintiff’s fall on an allegedly buckled mat while entering a restaurant. The trial court granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment. In a brief opinion, the Appellate Division observed that there was no evidence of how long the mat had been buckled. Accordingly, the plaintiff could not establish that the defendants had actual or constructive notice of a dangerous property condition. The Court also noted that there was no evidence that the defendants had violated a duty to inspect
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