Case Law Summaries

Vasquez v. Brock

LANDOWNER’S LIABILITY—Where a property owner hires a seemingly responsible tree removal contractor and an inadequately trained worker is killed when hit by a falling tree, the owner is not liable for the death because the worker was killed in the performance of the precise work that it had been hired to do, even if cutting down trees could be construed to be inherently dangerous.

• Opinion Date: December 19, 2001
• Real Property Law

Rura v. Bennett

LANDLORD-TENANT; SECURITY DEPOSITS—The statutory limit for residential security deposits is one and one half month’s rent and a landlord cannot insist on an enhancement for special reasons such as the presence of a dog.

• Opinion Date: January 12, 2001
• Real Property Law

Deb Associates v. Pollack

LANDLORD-TENANT; SECTION 8—Landlords are required to accept Section 8 tenants and cannot thwart the Section 8 program by refusing to execute the program’s necessary documents.

• Opinion Date: April 27, 2001
• Real Property Law

Nolasco v. The Mayor and the Board of Commissioners of the City of Jersey City

LANDLORD-TENANT; RENT CONTROL—Even under rent control, a rental, once vested, should not be rolled back and recalculated upon the advent of a new tenant.

• Opinion Date: September 4, 2001
• Real Property Law

Quintela v. The Rent Control Board of The City of Bayonne

LANDLORD-TENANT; RENT CONTROL—Where the right of a landlord to raise rent for a rent controlled apartment is based upon an ambiguous provision of the applicable ordinance, the landlord should apply for an advisory opinion from the control board or take the risk that the rent increase will be set aside.

• Opinion Date: March 20, 2001
• Real Property Law

Thomas v. Allen

LANDLORD-TENANT; PARKING—Absent a specific lease provision or a history of crime in a neighborhood that would impose a duty on a landlord to provide parking lot security, a landlord has no such obligation.

• Opinion Date: July 9, 2001
• Real Property Law

Morristown Housing Authority v. Harris

LANDLORD-TENANT; EVICTION; NOTICE—By threatening eviction in numerous earlier notices, but not so acting, a tenant may be confused into believing that later, similar notices could be disregarded; such “confusing signals” may bar an eviction based upon the later notice.

• Opinion Date: April 3, 2001
• Real Property Law

Bachenberg v. Weston

LANDLORD-TENANT; EVICTION—Where a landlord cannot show that its tenant’s residential use of the leased property was merely incidental to the tenant’s commercial use of the property, the tenancy is treated as a residential one, subject to the Anti-Eviction Act.

• Opinion Date: August 29, 2001
• Real Property Law

McQueen v. Brown

LANDLORD-TENANT; EVICTION—To be owner-occupied, a house need not be the owner’s domicile or principal residence; the owner merely must reside in the house for “some time.”

• Opinion Date: July 10, 2001
• Real Property Law

Sciarra v. Santiago

LANDLORD-TENANT; EVICTION—It is not equitable to evict a residential tenant where a relatively minor lease violation is promptly cured after receipt of a notice to quit.

• Opinion Date: June 26, 2001
• Real Property Law