Plaintiff, Alejandra Padilla, allegedly tripped and fell while walking on the public sidewalk abutting a vacant commercial lot owned by Defendants, Young Il An and Myo Soon An. Plaintiff claimed that the Defendants were negligent for failing to reasonably maintain the sidewalk. Defendants moved for summary judgment, arguing they did not owe Plaintiff a duty of care. The trial court granted Defendants’ motion and the Appellate Division affirmed.
On appeal, the New Jersey Supreme Court was asked to determine whether owners of vacant commercial lots have a common law duty to maintain the public sidewalks abutting those lots in reasonably good condition. The Court began its analysis by noting that whether a duty exists is ultimately a question of fairness. According to the Court, there is something “profoundly unfair” about commercial property owners purchasing vacant lots and having no responsibility whatsoever for maintaining the area where the general public traverses.
Furthermore, the New Jersey Supreme Court pointed out the difficulty of employing a case-by-case, commercial property-by-commercial property approach to determining when a duty is owed. Specifically, Defendants’ suggestion to base liability on profitability or a path to profitability to be an unworkable approach that will lead to inconsistent results and unfairly harm the public. Conversely, a bright-line rule that commercial property owners owe a duty is the most workable rule to protect the general public and to ensure consistency in commercial sidewalk liability law.
Ultimately, the New Jersey Supreme Court held all commercial landowners, including owners of vacant commercial lots, have a duty to maintain the public sidewalks abutting their property in reasonably good condition and are liable to pedestrians injured as a result of their negligent failure to do so. This rule “will clarify the scope of commercial sidewalk liability and provide clear guidance to courts, commercial property owners, and the public.” Undoubtedly, this ruling will affect how litigants address cases with vacant commercial lots.